Happy Banned Books Week!

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"Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us."—Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas," The One Un-American Act." Nieman Reports, vol. 7, no. 1 (Jan. 1953): p. 20.

yawn....

Morning came too early.

I needed to get my new red wool fitted gown to a point where I could work on the hand sewing at the event this weekend. This meant cutting, pining and sewing way too late. I still think that this will be done in time for the Faire next weekend. LOL! It's possible, especially if I concentrate on the handsewing when I'm in Calontir. I also will need to make 16 or so buttons and button holes. My sleeves are one piece so no closures needed, yay!

SnB was fun last night, knitknot brought her wheel and taught R to spin, who looked like she was getting the hand of it. The Chalet socks from the Folk Socks book kicked my ass! Her charts are not intuative at all and I really had a hard time following them. It wasn't just me either, my firends who are more experienced knitters also agreed that they were odd. As much as I would like to make that particular pattern I frogged the whole thing last night. I think I will need to re-write the chart before I try again. I don't know what the author was thinking.

knitknot showed me another way to catch the yarn when knitting fairisle, but I have not had a chance to try it yet. No knitting fo me for a while, need to sew this week.

Completed projects, knitting and SCA

The Simple Stripes baby sweater is complete and I should have that in the mail tonight, along with some socks.

This is for my friend who just had baby #2. The sweater should fit her oldest and then it can be passed onto the younger brother. The socks are for the baby. It would be nice if I could whip up a stocking cap to go with, but I need to concentrate on my sewing this week and finish up my woodworking projects. I'm sad the self striping did not match on the baby socks, but I will try to get over it.

I finished my pattons last night. They actually are quite comfortable and I am excited to see how they hold up.

I glued up 2 layers of 1 x 4 poplar, cut the side profile on the band saw and then cut the top profile. I eased the edges slightly, sanded and smoothed. I added some cut nails to the sole to hold the two layers together and, perhaps, prevent wear. We will see. I clomped through the house last night and really like how they felt.

Here is a shot of the completed Northshield Shade Fly #2 from Autumn Rose.

Here is a shot of one of my work tables. I'm making 2 in total and the other one still needs the legs sanded and sealed. The top still needs another coat or 2 of shelac.

Braizer

Very excited! I forwarded the following link for a portable braizer to my friend who is a blacksmith.

We discussed the design over the weekend. He is going to build a proto-type with his modifications have me test drive it. Once the design is tweaked to his satisfaction he is going to produce them for his shop and I get to keep the prototype!!! This is SO COOL!

I think I'm going to try and get out to his shop and spend some hours on the creation, if I can.

Goodies

My stuff arrived today from Knit Picks! YAY!






I started the Dale of Norway sweater and I am not liking how the back looks when I'm carrying the yarn. I don't know what to do to fix this since I don't know that much about colorwork. I think I will have to set it aside until I can meet with my yarn consultant. Until then I will start on the Last-Minute Stripes Sweater by Amy King in the Simple Stripes Crayon. I got the pattern off the Knit Picks site and now it seems to have gone away. Good thing I printed it out when I did or I would be SOL.

Yarn Harlot!

Road trip to WI on Sunday. LOTS of fun. 5 folks from the East Side Fiber enablers joined me and we headed off to Eau Claire, via Chippewa Falls. I was born in Eau Claire and lived in Chippewa Falls until I was 7 and my family moved to MN. My parents moved back the Chippewa several years ago and it's always felt like my home town to me. I brought my riders to Olsons and we had ice cream, yum. I did discover that they no longer do frosties and the sky darkened a bit.

We then went to Irvine Park to stretch our legs and visit with the animals. The bears were awfully cute in their new environment. Now we just need something for the big cats.

On to Yellow Dog Knitting in Eau Claire and lunch at Acoustic Cafe. I was very good and did not succumb to temptation and kept my wallet in my bag at Yellow Dog. Though I did enable my friends and I am still wistfully thinking about the Rowen DK tweed for a wrap cardigan....


  

Lunch at Acoustic. Wonderful hoagies and soup and Leinekugels, but of course! At Acoustic we met lovely and exuberant knitters also from MN. There was much mutual admiring of knitted delights. Good times among our peers.


  

Waiting in line for our books to be signed. The talk itself was at the Masonic temple 2 blocks from the Yarn shop. It was very good and most of us were well behaved, although I did laugh pretty loud. I worked on Chris's mobius scarf and managed to knit 8" of the ribbing. I did not bring a project of my own because I did not have anything in progress. ::gasp:: I know. This is because I FINALLY finished my Rogue! YAY!


  

  

It's knit out of Cascade 220 Quattro that I picked up on the Yarnzilla sale last Fall and I'm very pleased with it. I had the body finished for a while and the sleeves started. Everything was shoved in a bag while I worked on other projects throughout the summer, namely baby stuff and socks. I picked it back up on Friday and started working on the sleeves that night. I start at the cuffs and knit both sleeves at the same time on one needle and I had 6 inches completed. I took the sleeves with me to the SnB on Saturday in Como (thanks again Louise!) and a bridal shower Saturday afternoon. I joked that I would love to have the sweater finished to wear on Sunday. Everyone politely laughed at me and I agreed it sounded pretty ambitious. However, thanks to simple stockinette I managed to knit up to the underarm by the end of the shower. Once home I knit the majority of the sleeve cap, leaving Sunday to finish the sleeve cap and sew both sleeves onto the sweater. I finished the sewing at 11:15 am and my riders started showing up at 11:45 am.

I thought it was a fitting tribute to Harlot and her "down to the wire" tales and wore it with pride on Sunday, even when I was roasting in line. LOL!

Thanks for coming to WI Stephanie! It was great to meet you and I hope we are able to bring you to MN after book number 4 is in print. It sounds great!

Anticipation.....

I was hoping that my order from Knitpicks would be here by now. It didn't ship until the 6th, oh well. My package is currently in WI so I'll have it next week. I will just need to be patient.

I ordered some lovely items!

Simple Stripes in Crayons for a baby sweater
Simple Stripes in Tropics also for a baby sweater or socks.
Alpaca Cloud in stream for a shawl for my god mother. (haven't decided which pattern)
Essential in Ash to try my hand at dress socks for my dad.

My purpose is to start the Holiday knitting early.

I'm musing over my WIP to decide what I should bring to the SnB tomorrow morning. I really need to finish Rogue so I think I will try to get through the charted portions of the sleeves tonight so I can sit and work stockinette while visiting and meeting new people.

Saturday afternoon is a Bridal shower for my friend who is getting married next weekend.

Sunday = ROAD TRIP!

CSA = Community Shares Agriculture

For those unfamiliar with the term, this allows people to purchase a percentage of a local farmers yield and then you pick up said percentage each week during the growing season.

This is our first year doing CSA (or as a friend calls it "the cargo cult") and I like it, but we have a hard time eating all the produce each week. Maybe if we were feeding a family of 4 or splitting it with another household I wouldn't feel so wasteful. I've managed to prepare most of the stuff we get, but some things ended up in the compost despite my best efforts. I like the concept but it makes me reluctant to do it again next year, especially since I seem to be the only one at our house who makes any attempt to eat the produce each week. Granted he will eat stuff if I make it, but he takes not take any intitative to prepare anything himself. Frustrating.

This Sunday is Yarn Harlot in Eau Claire, WI. I think it will be fun!

Labor Day, no kidding....

Shade Fly Done! Ropes were cut to size last night, valance was sewn to the canopy, reinforcing corners added, grommets set, lumber purchased. I had to rip down a couple 2 x 4's for the uprights and I did that at work this morning. The uprights still need to be sanded and painted, but that will have to wait until some of the moisture in the wood leaves. Good grief it was awfully wet for being in an indoor warehouse.

Here are a couple pictures of the valance during painting.

"Ducere Ministrare Illuminare" is latin for "To Teach, to Serve, to Light the Way" and is the motto for the Kingdom of Northshield. I have not set up the whole thing yet so that will have to wait until tomorrow. Then I can get a picture of the finished item.

Speaking of finished!



Rashid will get them tonight! I'm hoping that he will let me display them on the A&S table on Saturday. Considering the cool weather we are predicting he may be happy to have long wool socks to wear.

I also finished my self stripey sock and am starting #2.

This weekend I will be cooking, unless we are rained out. Fingers crossed for mostly sunny skies. Lenny would prefer a weekend without thunder. How can one say no?