The Girasole Project

Yep - I have been a bad blogger. Its been a very busy time. Lots of work, trying to find time to knit, not much else happening. So that's the past several months in a nutshell.

That said, I have a new project in mind that I figure I can track here on the blog. I fell in love with Girasole, a wonderful pattern by Jared Flood, aka BrooklynTweed, who is a brilliant designer with an amazing eye for pattern and color. I want to make the blanket version and I am already envisioning curling up with it in front of the fire. I would best describe this pattern as a cheerful yet elegant piece with the sunflower pattern bringing summer indoors year round.

I have had the privilege of seeing the pattern in progress and know it is going to be a serious commitment piece. As the rounds get larger it can take 45 minutes or more to complete a single round. This is not a fast piece but the results seem well worth it. Since I am going to essentially marry this piece for quite some time I have decided that this is going to become my own personal show piece, an heirloom item I can pass on to the grandchild I hope my son will someday provide (since he is five now I have plenty of time to finish). To that end I have also decided to go whole hog and make this a sheep to blanket piece. Yes, I intend to spin the 1800 yards this pattern requires. I still have plenty of Cormo left from the two fleece I bought a couple years ago. All I need to do is finish cleaning it and spin it up! Sounds easy ~ right? OK maybe not quite that easy.

I consider myself an advanced beginner spinner. I have mastered the intuitive spin and I can spin a fairly even yarn. I just upgraded from my Babe to an Ashford Traditional and have noticed a significant difference in my ability to control my yarn. The Babe is an excellent starter wheel and I intend to use it to teach my son to spin, but I found myself wanting "more" ~control, speed, flexibility. I have had my Ashford for a couple months now and easily see the difference. To make this blanket, though, I need to produce a predictable, repeatable yarn that has the characteristics I desire. This means taking my spinning beyond intuitive to intentional. I think I am ready. More important, I am patient. I have given myself all winter to spin the yarn and plan on knitting come Spring. I expect this blanket to be complete before next winter. I think that's manageable.

I have decided its time to put some of my skills in place to get to my goal. As a quality professional, I understand the value of a repeatable process to get a predictable outcome. I know this starts with understanding the end ~ ie clearing documenting my requirements. Then breaking down all the steps and identifying my learning gaps to enable me to meet my requirements. The requirements are going to drive every decision I make in this project. Do I want a warm fluffy blanket or a light blanket that shows off the pattern? Until I decide this I can't select the type of yarn I want to spin. So the first thing I need to do is look at the completed projects on Ravelry and maybe talk to some other knitters for information.

As a quality professional I am also exposed to quite a bit of project management as a control tool. So I will also set a project plan to plan and track my progress. This is going to be an interesting project on many levels - not only to make a beautiful piece of art, but to see how to incorporate my many passions (quality, knitting, spinning, dying, planning) to create this project.

PhatFiber Fair Box Rocks!

Its been a busy summer. I will blog about it later but for now I want to share the awesome box I got from PhatFiber. 

"Phat Fiber is a mystery box of awesome samples for the yarn and fiber enthusiast in us all. With a focus on the independant artisan, this box is a super grass-roots treat for the senses. " That's from the PhatFiber website.

So, to get the box you have to be lucky and quick! She only puts a few up and they go up on a specific day at specific times. We get an email alerting us to when the boxes go up. Then you go in to etsy and see if you can snag a box. This is the first time I have actually gotten a box and let me say it was worth it. 

This month the theme was "At the Fair" so everything had was related to something you might find at a summer fair. I got lots of yarn samples in fair colors, and fiber samples that were fair related - my favorite was the fibery goodness packed up as a snowcone. There were also some patterns and stitch markers - including an adorable watermelon stitch marker. I can't wait to try it all out and then visit some of the wonderful folks who create all these goodies and get more. Most of all, I love this way of getting introduced to new independents and finding more wonderful small fibery goodness sellers to support. 

I'm Back and Still Wondering What Happened to Summer

So I know I have been remiss in my blogging but with good reason. I have been busy. You know - work and stuff. After I returned from Hawaii we decided to send DH and the young one to San Diego to visit Grandma and Grandpa and take care of a few things with the house we still own out there. So off they went for three weeks, which left me with plenty of free time to catch up on housecleaning and maybe play a bit. Or so I thought. First of all about a week into their trip I get "the phone call" - you know the one every mom doesn't want to get. "Hi Honey, we are headed to urgent care, but don't worry its not too serious". Sigh. Well, at least relatively speaking it wasn't too serious - just a broken arm. Sigh. But young one took it like a trooper and it really didn't phase him once he was casted. Oh the resiliency of children. Then it was my turn making the call. "Hi Honey, do you mind if I am not here to pick you up from the airport?" I got pulled on to last minute travel to Israel of all places. So while they were coming back from San Diego, I was headed off around the world. It was a quick trip but I did get to spend some time at the Dead Sea (wow - they really do mean you float) and visited the Masada. I even got some knitting in and took my Loopy Ewe postcard for some shots of Loopy at the lowest place on earth. What was most ironic was I was knitting on a skein of Noro making a log cabin square and the aqua color in the Noro matched the Dead Sea. I will always think of that trip when I look at this square. The only other observation about the trip is that I now understand the color "Mediterranean Blue". When we flew in to Tel Aviv I was looking out the window and the Mediterranean is the most amazing blue. I have never seen that color - it was truly breathtaking. I wish I could go spend more time on the Mediterranean Sea. 

So now we are all back in the same time zone and hoping to keep it that way for awhile.

Now - onto some more good stuff. I got my package in the mail from my Saucy Swap partner, Ponyknits. It was wonderful.

Isn't it just chock full of goodies? The yarn is so pretty - it is Queensland Collection Rustic Tweed. It is a mix of Wool, Alpaca and Donegal - yes it has actual tweed flecks in there. It is so soft and so pretty.  I have to decide on socks or scarf. I kind of think this wants to be a scarf to show off the tweed. Its that pretty. Then there is the yummy Hersheys - which are actually one of my favorite guilty pleasures. Ok - I like all the Godiva, See's, etc in the more designer chocolate world, but honestly I really appreciate good old Hershey's - its got a melt in your mouth appeal that I really like. And it is perfect snack size. Then there is a bag of peanuts which my son immediately wanted to open. I can't wait to try the mustard - it is Old Cape Cod Sweet and Hot Honey Mustard - I need to go get some pretzels! Yum! And the hot sauce if Franks extra hot! I am thinking Nachos or maybe on a Baked potato. It will be enjoyed. There is also some magnetic notepads (which I love because I use these all the time) and some cute notecards. Finally, there is the coolest knitting notion - a BrySpun Fix It - its a #8 needle on one end and a H crochet hook on the other. Perfect for dropped stitches. I am tickled with this! Ponyknits did a wonderful job spoiling me!

Now I am going to go knit some and maybe stare at my pretty yarn some more! Its nice to be back - but seriously? Its still freaking raining here. This is the longest winter ever. Oh yeah  - its almost August. 

Can Someone Please Call Summer and Ask it to Please Come Back

Ok - can we all please take a moment and look at the calendar.  Yep - that's what I thought - it still says July. As in summer, like Fourth of July, BBQ, picnics, fireworks, sunscreen, sunglasses. Lets see - what do all these things have in common? That's right - outside, sunshine and warm weather. 

Ok - then can someone please explain to my why I actually:

A) Put on wool socks

B) Pulled out my winter sweater and put it on

C) Turned on the heat

What is wrong with this picture? Its July folks! I should be dreaming of knitting with cashmere not actually wearing it!

Summer - please come. We really miss you in New England. 

Im still here!

Yes - I am still here but I seem to be suffering from the same syndrome as many others - busy! I still can't believe I ended spending close to a month and a half in Hawaii which really was crazy - you work long hours virtually round the clock sometimes, then when you aren't working at site you are trying to keep up with the home office and maybe, just maybe, find time for sleep. I did enjoy it though. I really love my job. I am lucky that way. And I did get to have a little bit of fun - aside from getting to go out to dinner with a bunch of different people that I work with and getting to know them off hours, I was also able to escape for one day and go on  the volcano tour. We also went to a luau but that was kind of tempered by the fact that I had to go from the luau to work again. 

One of the fun parts was hooker atm. Honolulu has its fair share of working ladies. Now personally I see nothing wrong with that line of work. I say if you can make money at it - go for it. I am not going to sit in judgement. But what was fun was watching these ladies work. There is one ATM and there are several girls who stand right outside the ATM. I think that is brilliant marketing. I was there long enough to recognize the girls who worked that location. I even gave them names and backstories. Jamie and Barbie. Jamie always wore jeans - I wondered if that was a management uniform. But what was sad was that I never saw any of the girls get a customer. I think the economy is hitting everyone. I have to wonder how much these girls make because from what I saw, its a lot of work standing there for hours on end in those heels (I think its a law or something to wear plastic see through platform heels) and not getting any takers. It must be profitable because there were sure lots of girls. I hope so - if you are going to go into this line of work I would want to make good cash. Anyways - what became fun is that was the landmark we used - we would meet at hooker ATM. Its funny how many people knew exactly what we were talking about. Ok - so seriously - we were working that hard that our entertainment in Honolulu was watching the hookers. Sad but true. 

But now I am back and slowly getting back in to things. I came back with my usual bronchitis and spent a couple weeks recovering. Feeling better now and glad to be back to a semi normal routine. I have some yummy yarns waiting for me and my spinning wheel is calling. Nice to be home!

Home!!!!

It feels so freaking good to be home and sitting around doing absolutely nothing! Three weeks is a long time to be away for work. Yeah, its Hawaii but while I am there it is all work all the time. Even when we are not working it is still everyone from work so of course we discuss work. Its very tiring all around. And I get to go back in a week for two more weeks of this kind of fun. My life is so glam. 

So this trip was all about sushi though. I ended up eating more sushi than I think I have in my life. We ended up at several places that have the conveyor belt running around the room and you pick what you want off the belt. Not only yummy but fun. We also hit a grill your own place where you have a small grill at your table - ok - not sushi, but we did eat some seared tuna. I have to say that the seafood is one of the best parts of being in Hawaii. Other than that it was work work work - and the site was so unglam - no running water, no power and hot as can be!

Well, at least I am home with my family and oh so happy!

Finally .... Spring

Its finally starting to get nice outside. Today we have green grass and the daffodils are poking through the ground. Its a huge relief to have this winter behind us..we hope. The big boats at the dealership are still shrink wrapped though so we are still cautious. But at least we can go outside for now without a jacket. 

My brain is all things spring. I am spending my spare time watching Lambcam over at the fiber farm. The goats are due to drop babies anytime. We have all been watching for the past week anxiously waiting out baby goats. I love being a part of the fiber farm. I also got my first share this week. In the mail I got a box full of yummy Marthas Vineyard Fiber Farm fiber - right off these very goats I am watching on lambcam.  Check out this pile of fibery goodness.

The big pile of white is the MVFF fiber - its a Cormo/Mohair mix fresh from the farm. I got 12 ounces of this yummy softness.  There is also a smaller batch of white which came from another farm and was included as a bonus, but the super surprise was the brown wool. There was four ounces of the surprise brown which also came from a neighboring farm but it is the richest chocolate color I have ever seen in fiber. Stunning is all I can say. I cannot wait to spin it up and keep it in its natural color state. I think it would make a stunning contrast color for some fair isle work, possibly in mittens or a hat or a scarf. 

This is a close up of it all. The chocolatey color really doesn't come through very well. You just have to believe me that it is so beautiful. I hope to start spinning this in the next week or two. Right now I have some Sereknity merino roving on my wheel, in Pomegranite colorway. Its a pretty blend of pink, orange, purple and burgandy. Its going to make some lovely sock yarn. Its been so long since I have spun with prepared roving that I forgot how quick and easy it spins up.