Trip to Southern Vermont

As a follow-up to the Vermont Knit Camp II, I wanted to post a couple pics from my drive down and back.

As always, clickety to embiggen (the pics) --->

Vermont is a beautiful state, and I love southern Vermont too, although I don't get down to the Bennington area more than every 10 years or so!

For my many out of state friends, Jeff and I live in northwest Vermont (Jericho, 12 miles northeast of Burlington), Bennington is on the southern Vermont border with Massachusetts.

I took an alternate road down, parallel with Route 7, which is a N/S main highway.

There was less traffic and stress, and went by some beautiful lakes and lovely farm area, and through the historic area of Southern Vermont, namely Manchester, Hubbardton, and then Bennington.

The pics of the houses are in Manchester.

Enjoy the pics!

Vt. Knit Camp II

Last weekend, June 6-8, I traveled down to southern Vermont-Bennington, to be precise--for the second Vt. Knit Camp gathering for members and friends of the GLBT-Knit listserve (e-mail) group I've been a member of since January.

I have many fond memories: the wonderful, talented, and lively group of women and men (mostly women); the fabulous handknit garments/articles that they brought for show-and-tell, or were working on; and the un-for-get-able food! I'd have to say that, hands-down, Charlton's "chocolate cream pie" was THE hit of the weekend! (Sorry to all the other entries, which were fabulous too!)

Sidebar: Charlton said he was bringing a "chocolate cream pie." And, as he's in the greater Boston area (Somerville), I just assumed it would be similar to a Boston Cream Pie. But, nope. It was a chocolate cream pie. Literally. No, it was really like semi-hard chocolate fudge--with a hint of cream, and in a crunchy crust. And, did he bring just one, little, itty-bitty pie? NO! He brought TWO HUGE PIES and one small pie! (I'm getting a migraine just writing about it!) I had to take 3 migraine pills: one each day, in order to consume some each day. I even brought a piece home for Jeff, which I ate most of...

The runners-up were Melissa's Mac 'n Cheese, Carol Ann's brownies and quiche, and Ann's Granola. Sorry if I misspelled any names here, new friends for me. Also sorry if I omitted other foods, seriously, it was all wonderful!

I'm posting a couple pics of the people and the garments. Jeff and I are leaving for Seattle and Victoria on Tuesday so I have to make some quick and dirty posts now. I have lots of cleaning and packing to do! A lot of my pics came out blurry: it was in the low 90s for weather, and I don't know if my camera was miffed.

Pics: As always, clickety to embiggen (the pics)-->

Top right: Charlton, ala chocolate pie fame.
Second from top: group shot on the last day.
Third from top; Gigi from Montreal models her fabulous cabled sweater. The details were fantastic!
Middle at right: Sadia from Bennington displays her spindle-spun yarn. Very nice!
At right: Melissa S. Shows off her very nice top/shrug. Beautiful!
Next: Fudge from Ithaca warms up with MY cashmere/alpaca/merino triangle in triangle lace shawl. Soft.

I will be posting more pics after the Seattle trip. Just wanted to share some of these with ya'll.

Props to all from the knit camp! I thoroughly enjoyed meeting all of you and hope we meet again!

It's Our Moment...It's Our Time...Happy June!

Uh....a bit late here, but happy June! A friend of mine once said (long ago), "you have to say 'Rabbit, Rabbit' the first morning of the month, right when you wake up. It'll bring you good luck!" Okay, so, belated "rabbit, rabbit" everyone!

Clickety to Embiggen (the pics)--->

I try to keep this blog politically neutral, but I am just bursting with pride and joy right now! I am huge supporter of Barack Obama. It's the first time I've ever donated to a political candidate. Last night's speech gave me hope again for this country. I won't blather on much, but I really, really hope that Americans will find it in their hearts the courage and strength to give him a chance come November. My friends come from all political stripes, so I'll just get off the political soapbox and off to fiber stuff! (Feel free to carry on any political conversation with me off blog at my comcast e-mail!) Hugs.
Back to other stuff...

The pics of the flowers are: columbine, lupines, and wiegelia--just starting. All the plants are soaking wet, and it's drizzling out! Today is rainy and cool. Temperature in the mid 60s. This weekend it's supposed to be 86-90!

I'm off to Bennington (southern Vermont) on Friday for a GLBT knit camp! Yay! I'm on a listserve with dozens of fabulous people from all over the world, and about 20 something of us are meeting Friday-Sunday for a knit camp. I've been on the list group for about six months now, and the talented and extremely funny group has enriched my life. (Remind me to post later about "JIC Melissa", and the Melissa names...) I'm not teaching a workshop this time, so I'm really psyched to just hang, and knit with folks. That was one of the drawbacks of teaching the spinning cotton workshop at Easton--I didn't get as much time to just hang with people. Although the workshop for me was extremely rewarding--both sharing, and feedback from the attendees.

BFF news! One of my new BFFs from Easton is Kenny from Houston, "The Boy Who Knits". He's a wonderful guy, and I'm honored to know him, and getting to know him online and via phone since the retreat. Kenny sent me a "pound of love" in the mail. A box of yarn! Fabulous sock yarn: a gorgeous Flat Feet blank, with browns and greens; two skeins of Panda Silk (bamboo, superwash merino, and some silk) that has the most amazing hand (feel), in browns and gold; two skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd sock yarn in purple iris (green and purple); two skeins of Shibuiknits superwash merino in jade green; a skein of dark blue, and a skein of grey Trekking XXL sockyarn; two skeins of Plymouth Royal 100% bamboo; and the "unmentionable" Red Heart iron acrylic yarn--a joke, not in the pic--my hands are wayyyyyy too soft to deal with a petroleum based yarn.

So, a HUGE thanks to Kenny! Luv ya!

That's all folks! For now. More later if I have time. If not, after the knit camp weekend!

Hugs, Chris

Mark Your Spot!

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The weather in Vermont is finicky. Last night we had a fire in our soapstone woodstove, and there were frost/freeze warnings; today it's 76 and I have some fans on and the windows open! Ice Age and Global Warming?!

Here are some pics for Barb in Clearwater, Florida. I've known her for many years, as she was a member of the spinning guild I (uh hum...) sometimes attend (I've been a member for over 15 years), and summered here in Vermont and wintered in Clearwater. Maybe 3 or 4 years ago she and her husband Fred moved down there permanently.

They do have children who live in Vermont, so I hope to run into them sometime. She said that she is homesick for Vermont, so I thought I'd put up some pics from today...I hope she doesn't get more homesick! As always, clickety to embiggen!
(the pics)

Project Updates:
The Dr. G's vest is going along slowly. I keep getting sidetracked with other projects. I just need to sit down and finish one thing at a time, instead of having 7 or 8 projects going on! The pattern is really easy, and the handspun (mine) corriedale has lovely jewel tones in it. The sunlight really highlights it.

The silk lace yarn: It was my mom's birthday yesterday, and as I had not figured out exactly what I was going to get for her, it all came out well, as in our phone conversation she said she'd love a scarf! The colors will look great on her, and I started the feather and fan pattern as a swatch. I'm going to show it to her on Saturday and see if she likes it.

I haven't touched the sun ray shawl since Easton.

New Stuff:
I got four lovely fleece samples of Huacaya Alpacas from Maple who with her husband Howes owns North Star Alpacas in Michigan. I met her on Rav, and got into a conversation about crimp versus elasticity/memory (my mis-speak). I asked her to send me some samples, and she did! Most of the alpaca that I have spun had little crimp--none that I could see, and I wonder if the roving process removes it. She stated that Alpaca breeders have been trying to breed more crimp and elasticity (my take on it) into the breeds--that's great, especially from a handspinner's perspective.

I fell in love with the samples! Two white, a brown, and a fawn color. Each one is just a lock, but I was amazed to see how much yarn I got out of one lock! The first sample was Orion, a two year old male, with a really nice silky, dark brown fleece. I flicked the lock, and it fluffed up about threefold. I separated it in half. The first section I pulled into an 18" roving. While alpaca is not "greasy", it still has a slightly greasy feel to it. This was not washed, and was very clean, without any grass or vegetation in it. The "greasiness" (I use the term lightly--it's not greasy like wool), kept the fiber together as I was drafting it, and the long fiber length (about 4-5 inches) made it quite easy to draw into a thread thread.

The second part of the lock I spun right from the lock. To do this, angle the side of the lock toward the leader from your wheel while treadling, and let the end of the fibers catch onto the twist in the leader. Once it's connected, start pulling out from the lock.

One tip: it's better to pull the fibers out from the lock versus pulling back with the hand holding the lock because the fiber will end up bunching in your hand. This is true when spinning short-draw too.

The second alpaca sample I spun was Pollux, a two year old boy, with a lovely white fleece. This lock was beautiful too. Not quite as silky as Orion, but still delightful. Pollux was easier to spin a bit thicker, but as you can see in the sample swatch, both plied yarns came out to 7 sts per inch using #3 needles. Note, I got 9 yards of 2-ply yarn out of each lock!

More later...