Meanderings - Kate Robertson
Monday, 26 September 2005
Wicked Tinkers, Bonny Legs and Yarn
Mood:
chatty
Well we had a Bonny Time at the Treasure Valley Celtic Festival and Highland Games in Boise. We got up at 4 O'Clock am GROAN... We were on the road by 5. We stopped at a Scottish Restaurant in Chubbuck you know the one Mc Donalds. Now that we were fortified we were on our way. Sarah and I slept most of the way since we had our trusty chauffeur Dave to do the driving.
We found the festival just fine. Too bad it was so flipping cold. I had brought a wool sweater and my Clan Robertson scarf that I got in Inverness last summer. I could have used some heavy wool socks and boots. I had tennis shoes on and the field was wet so my feet were cold most of the day.
Not having attended one of these before I didn't quite know what to expect. Men and women in kilts and skirts of various size and type from the tiny kids to the old men. It was great, so many different Tartans represented. They had vendors selling lots of Celtic jewelry, We took Dave around and showed him what we liked. Hopefully some of it shows up in our Christmas stocking.
A few pics for your enjoyment.
A group of Pipers 
The Wicked Tinkers - what a band 
Here is Sarah with the band wearing her "Wallup the Cat" T-shirt
Some of the Men in the bonny knees contest 
here is my favorite... he was such a cutie! He is in the center.
More contestants 
Now see the women judges at work
I met with my Tartan buddy aka Tim Cayler, the man I am weaving the samples for. I met his wife and several other people in the organization. I left my samples with him. They were pleased with the initial offerings so that was nice.
Here I am with Tim and Eileen.
Well no trip to another town should leave out checking out the yarn shops. I knew of 2 in town. We did not have much time to get there before the shop closed. I had 20 minutes to shop. I think I would have come home with more treats but it was hard. Too much to choose from. I will be glad to go back there again. I should of taken pics, the camera was in the car but I did not think about it till too late. oh Well. But I did end up with this gem
Yes I got this to do Birch. It is actually lighter than the picture shows. I hope my skills are up to the task. I thought I might try a swatch in another yarn before I begin just to become with the pattern and all.
We spent the night at the Econo Lodge, Cheap Motel but nice. I found Knitwits the next day. I was glad they were open on Sunday. Once again hard to choose but I found this to make FiberTrends Faina Scarf. It should be lovely. Its an 8 ply wool from Australia and should be lovely with this pattern.
The Faina Scarf
Posted by katespins
at 11:31 AM MDT
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Updated: Monday, 26 September 2005 12:58 PM MDT
Friday, 23 September 2005
Katrina revisited
My sister Marianne sent these pics of Susan, Katie and Ginger getting their package from me.
Here they are when the package arrived.
Susan in her new shawl, I think it looks great on her.
Here are Ginger and Katie showing the dishtowels I sent.
Susan reading the letter I sent. This family could use a lot of assistance so please help if you can. The Address to send things in below in the Katrina post.
Well I am determined to weave today so this has to be short. I am off to Boise this weekend to go to a Scottish festival. It should be great Men in Kilts... what more can you ask for.
Wednesday, 21 September 2005
Rain Rain Rain
Mood:
bright
Yes its raining and raining buckets which is unusual for here. I didn't have my table outside covered up so I headed out in the deluge. I thought I could cover with a plastic tablecloth but it was too short. Went and grabbed a tarp and its covered now but of course I am drenched. I wish we had some wood, I would light a fire.
I just got back from knitting group. Wow it sure is fun to go to this group. I will miss it the next few weeks. I will be working full time until the store is open. Then I can schedule the time off.
Well yesterday I got the loom warped and threaded. I am trying to decide whether I should push and try to get it woven by friday night, or just relax and do it next week and then just mail it to the guy. Tommorow I work and then I have evening plans to so I have this afternoon and friday to finish. Well I guess I will do what I can today and see. We have a college advice seminar to go to tonight. I think I may try using the endfeed shuttles this time. I need to have good edges. I am not that comfortable using the shuttles yet but this whole project has been about trying something new.
Its really starting to look like fall. Some of the leaves on the trees are starting to change. With all the rainy and cool weather it gives me the feeling of nesting. I feel like curling up on the couch and knitting or spinning the day away.
Tuesday, 20 September 2005
If I knew then what I know now
Weekend recap
I managed to finish the body of the Norwegian so now I am working on the sleeves. I finished the BFL socks. Aren't they pretty and they both fit now.
I then picked up the lace socks to finish and decided on 9 repeats instead of 10 so now I am working on the body of the sock. Slow going on size 0 needles. These socks are from the Folk Socks book by Nancy Bush
I took apart the purple vest and am redoing the ribbing. Decided to do seed stitch instead and it looks much better. When going from one project on size 0 to another on 9's it is really strange.
TODAY
I am starting to feel like the Yarn Harlot with her mishaps or Sara Lamb with her deadlines. The next time I am thinking of volunteering to do something will someone please stop me. Here is my new rule if you volunteer to do something remember it is going to take 1o times longer than you think it will.
We are going to the Scottish Festival in Boise on Saturday and I said I would have the tartan done by then. After my last bout of resleying the sett I had about 30" of warp left. So I thought I could at least weave one of the samples needed and deliver that and then put on a new warp. Well by the time I tied back on I had less warp then I thought. So I thought I will just tie on a new warp on the back of the old. Now of course I have never tried this before. I discovered it works best if you have some warp left over. So I stopped weaving at about 6" of my sample.
What you end up with is something looking like this.
You will see 2 set of lease sticks for each warp. Then I had to beam the warp without going through the heddle area like I usually do. I ended up attaching the raddle to the top of the loom. It was time consuming but worked ok. Here is a shot of that.
After getting that all done you set about to ties the knots between the 2 warps. You do this under tension and it would have worked great with different yarn. I broke three out of 25 thread in my first grouping. At that rate I would have a lot of broken threads. This was not going to work, the yarn is just too weak for that stress. So now I am back to square one. I am threading the new warp the old fashioned way and the cloth I had hoped to weave on the old warp is toast. I just ended up cutting it off. Now I could have saved a lot of time if one I had originally put on a longer warp or just skipped this tie on. Live and Learn I hope.
Saturday, 17 September 2005
A new job and other digressions
Well its Fall again. It rained all last night and its overcast and cool today. I do have some news. My days of leisure are over. I've gotten a temporary job at Barnes and Noble. They are opening their new store in the Mall soon. I will be setting up the store and may continue on in a part time basis if I like working there. I am thinking it might be a nice part time job, but we will see.
I dyed some more fleece in rabbit brush and then some in madder. I may overdye both of them next week. It is supposed to warm up in a couple days.
I am still plugging away on all the knitting projects. I am starting to feel like I have too many going so I will have to finish something I guess. I did the toes on the socks so that pair is done. I am working on a Lace pair from Folk socks. I am beginning to hate size 0 needles. Man the going is slow, no wonder I never finished them before. I am doing the heel flap now. I may have to work on the green vest(size 8 needles) or that purple vest(size 6 needles) just to regain my sanity. Those projects are in transition, they never made it to UFO status since they stayed in my knitting basket. I think a UFO needs to be packaged up with pattern and yarns and put away to qualify. I have plenty of those. The Norwegian has about 5-6 rows left in the body and then I need to do the sleeves, which means back to size 1 needles for sleeve ribbing. The sweater is a drop shoulder one so that means the sleeves will not be that long so thats a plus.
I sat and spun a little last night and then plied the yarn that was pleasant. I think I want to get back to preparing my silver Shetland fleeces. They are time consuming but I think the batts and the yarn will be lovely. I haven't decided if I want to spin that peach/orange basket of batts yet. I have no purpose for the yarn yet. It got prepared because I found a bag of dyed fleece and figured it was time to use it. m Maybe I should do that with the other dyed locks I have found. I know I have yellows and greens in containers downstairs. Time for an inventory and then set up some plans on what I want to process next.
Tuesday, 13 September 2005
KATRINA
I haven't written about Katrina since I had so many other things going on. My sis Marianne is in Natchez MS and all they got was rain which was great. It took a week and a half for her to find out if her grown sons were OK. They live in a suburb of New Orleans. Can you imagine that!
Well Natchez now has 3 times its normal population. She is staying with her friend Maggie, who has rental property and they have a displaced family from New Orleans staying there. I have adopted the family in the sense that I am sending what I can and getting the word out to others who might like to help. I know many of you may have already donated to the Red Cross but if you haven't and would like to help here are some particulars about the family.
The family consists of the mom Susan and daughters Katie and Ginger ages 11 and 8. Clothing sizes are girls 10/12, girls 14-16, woman's large top 14 bottom. She is from New Orleans. She has the kids in school and they have school supplies and such. Marianne says that she is a single mom and the job prospects in the area are slim to none. Money is the easiest thing to send, that way they can get what they need. Or you can send a package if you like. I sent a handwoven triangular shawl and some dishtowels. Its so hard to realize that they have lost everything. I sent the towels because that is what I tend to make. The thought that she might not have dishes to use towels on was sort of heartbreaking. One feels so small in a tragedy so huge I guess if we can find something that helps at least one person we become part of the healing that needs to take place.
The address is
217 Clifton ave.
Natchez ms. 39120
Here is the family. Thanks for your help.
Monday, 12 September 2005
Mangles, dishwasher and Knitting
Topic: Knitting
Here is a pic of my new toy. Its a mangle in case you are clueless. I got it free from a member of our spinning guild. I will use it for ironing, and setting handwoven fabric and maybe in the felting process too. I played a little this morning. I ironed handkerchiefs, napkins, dishtowels and tried a shirt. I need to practice more to figure on how to do a shirt but it is doable.
I finished the purple vest so I pulled out another UFO, first the pattern and then the work in progress.
I had to undo a row as there were mistakes but now I am moving on. It is so close to being done. By the size of the woman's glasses you can tell this is an old pattern. It was from Knitters years ago.
Last night I carded all the orange- peach fleece. I have not decided if I should blend or spin as it is and have several different shades or not. They do look pretty though. There are more lighter shades than the picture shows.
Now to appease the hubby who started reading my blog, oh no does that mean I can't chastise him here anymore, of course I can, its my blog after all.
He lamented that I never talked about the dishwasher after I complained about it well here is a lovely picture to show that he does get things done sometimes. Now isn't that a beautiful dishwasher!
Last night I finished the second sock but the first had been a little short so I planned to rip out the toe and redo and guess what I did, Now I can't believe I was really so stupid, maybe it was too late to be working on knitting or something but I ripped out the wrong toe, yes the toe I had just finished knitting. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRr So now today I have 2 toe's to do. Now I wonder about other knitters and what they do when they are really frustrated with a project. Do you throw the piece of knitting across the room and refuse to look at it for a couple days, or do you work it out right away. Now I know thats how projects become UFO's and I do plan to finish my socks just not today. I have to work on something else to keep my sanity.
Thursday, 8 September 2005
I set about to block the lace scarf. Not having ever done this before I looked up direction on the Yarn Harlots blog. While I waited for the computer to come up I put the scarf in some warm water. Oops, first mistake. I forgot to add a guide string like she suggests. I tried to block it without but that was a disaster so I unpinned the thing and sat and threaded a string through both edges. Sure my legs got all wet but it made the process so much easier. Although I bought a new package of pins I still did not have enough. I scrounged around the house for more. Well it didn't seem perfect although it seemed like I was constantly
re-pinning. So I just left it to dry. When I unpinned it, and took a look It was exciting...my first lace.. I can really do this.
I also resurrected a UFO. This purple vest is a Mt Colors kit that I won years ago. The knitting had been done but nothing was put together. I sewed up the shoulder and side seems and have started work on the ribbing. I should be able to finish this in no time.
I spent one evening of TV teasing this fleece. I have a basket of oranges and reds ready for the carder now. Looks pretty huh!
WEAVING
I tackled the tartan again. When I found another threading error I decided to weave a small amount more and cut off a sample to wash. It doesn't look square at all. I washed the fabric and hard pressed it. It does look lovely but its not correct. So I took about half the warp and reset it to 24 epi. I wove a section with 2 beats of the beater each time and I came up short. I wove with one beat and I came up about 4 shots 2 long. I am now going to try just one beat but put some weight on the beater to see if that will do it. This tartan stuff really needs to be precise. Here is my sample
Monday, 5 September 2005
Knitting goes on and on
Well since I have been ill all week I have taken to a knitting obsession and I think it is great. I finished the ribbing on the Fair Isle and am starting the pattern, that felt oh so good. I headed to the4 Yarn Connection since I need a long size 3 needle to do the body and ended coming home with this.
Now what may you ask do I need with sock yarn when I have a good 3 or 4 socks started and I can't seem to finish any of them. But this Opal was so pretty and purple of course. I kept going back to it thinking oh it could always be a gift for someone else when I knew for sure if I bought it and made those socks they would be for me. It helped me justify the purchase. In the end what the purchase did for me was to tackle all those unfinished socks. I gave up on the short row heel and just went back to my original sock pattern and managed to finish one sock today and am into the match now. I also tackled another started sock and am working on the heel flap on this one too.
I am heavily into finishing mode now. I have a vest that needs sewing together and then some edging knit on. I think I will finish that next. It sure seems empowering to finish items that have been hanging on for so long.
Posted by katespins
at 9:33 PM MDT
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Updated: Tuesday, 6 September 2005 12:03 AM MDT
Friday, 2 September 2005
Its Finished
Mood:
party time!
Its Finished!! Happy Dance !!!! I have finally finished something. Well it has to be blocked but I consider it finished. I need to go out and buy some pins to block with. What may you ask is the crazy woman going on and on about. Well the Lace Scarf of course. It is only 13.2 months late but what the hell its done. I will take pictures after its blocked.
Yes I have moved on to something else. I am tackling the endless ribbing in Hillswick Lumber forever to be known as the Fair Isle. Its knit in Jameison and Smiths Shetland jumper weight. The ribbing is done on size 1 needles and actually hurts my fingers to work on but I will persevere. I have made it through the halfway point which means I have done about 8 rows since I picked it up again. I think I have another 8-10 to go. See my progress! Aren't you impressed!
The Ribbing.
The Pattern.
I am still feeling crappy so I guess I will go knit...
Posted by katespins
at 7:44 AM MDT
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Updated: Friday, 2 September 2005 9:00 AM MDT
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