Tag Archives: targhee

FO: garland.

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This is 268 yards of dk-weight navajo-plied Hello Yarn targhee in garland. This isn’t the whole four ounces — more like 3.25, I think. I filled a bobbin, let it rest, and started plying, and I’m not sure if I’ll make another mini-skein just like this, or save the fraction of an ounce for an all-mixed-up leftovers skein. I love this, and I’m starting to feel like I’m getting the hang of navajo-plying! Hooray! (Also, I’m still getting to know my camera, and these definitely don’t do the skein justice.)

Look! A reorganized spinning corner! I walked by this desk on Monday — it was about two blocks from my house. And then I backed up, picked it up, and carried it home. It fits perfectly into this little nook between the door and the heater, and now there is more storage space and work space in my apartment.

This is Spunky Eclectic Fiber Club corriedale in the New Day colorway. When I finished the garland, I just had to get something else started on the wheel…and suddenly I had two bobbins of this stuff. Planning to sit down and ply right after I finishing posting!

Yesterday was farm share pick-up day, and I gathered a whole bag of flowers in the fields. I love being able to fill my apartment with flowers I’ve picked myself.

And I’m knitting something new! More on this project next time.

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red.

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Enter my new camera. The old one, which, for the record, I’ve had to alternately shake/smack to get it to turn on for the last two years, up and died yesterday. I thought maybe it was the heat, but I tried every trick last night and this morning, and still, nothing. We’ve had a good run. Unfortunately, my life has become a money pit lately, and this didn’t help. (I may have spent the first hour of my day at the Honda service center in order to determine if the check engine light refers to something that impacts the overall drive-ability of my car. It doesn’t, so my plans for a weekend road trip are still on, which is good. The not-so-good? I will have to replace an oxygen sensor before my car’s next inspection. Oh, and I have a strut that should be replaced eventually. Can I apply for a fellowship to help with that? Ha.)

Anyway, it wasn’t until I opened the box that I realized my new camera is red! And I like it! Basically, I was looking for something that has a solid lens, wasn’t super expensive, had macro-capabilities, and used as much of the stuff from my old camera as possible, so I stuck with Sony. I can use the same memory cards, which is nice, but the battery for this baby is about half the thickness of the old ones.

Here’s where I was on Day 5 of the tour with my garland targhee singles. I’m going to try to spin a bit more tonight before Boh and I hit the road in the morning.

My textured shawl. I’m taking this with me — we’re off to see the friend who gifted me this fiber!

And a gratuitous zinnia shot to kick off the weekend!

boh, asleep.

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First thing in the morning. I’ve already made the coffee. Boh is still in bed.

Late afternoon. I’m making progress on my garland singles. Boh is asleep on the floor.

Evening. Boh asleep on the couch. Doesn’t wake up when I sit down next to him and turn on the camera. In his defense, it has been incredibly hot — in the 90s. And humid. Today, Boh and I went swimming in the lake! A friend in my program has an adorable apartment right on the water, complete with a dock and a table with a big umbrella. There was wine, guacamole, iced tea, and swimming. (Well, I swam. Boh mostly stood in the water looking concerned about waves from passing motorboats. But I think he enjoyed it.) All that sun tired me out, too. I might have to curl up with Boh on the couch…

the tour.

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I’m actually planning to be near my wheel for most of the Tour de Fleece this year, so I’m in. Not that I was able to decide ahead of time what to spin — my options felt sort of overwhelming. After doing most of my cleaning and unpacking, I sat down to catch up on Ravelry, and was so inspired by the prettiness in all of the tour threads that I put a new bobbin on the wheel and started spinning.

This is Hello Yarn targhee in the garland colorway. I’m spinning thinnish singles that I’m planning to navajo-ply. This first picture is what I had last night. (I may have stayed up slightly past my bedtime to post this in the TdF threads before midnight.)

This is my bobbin around mid-morning.

And here it is after a bit more spinning this afternoon. I love watching each bright color appear!

Here’s one more shot of the bobbin — note what appears to be an enormous bug at the upper left. After uploading these photos, I went back to the wheel, and the bug was still there. Nowhere near as large in real life, but I encouraged him to find a new perch all the same.

I finally cast on for my textured shawl recipe shawl, and made some serious progress while catching up on the final episodes of The Good Wife and hiding from the heat! I’m using a handspun 2-ply made out of this gorgeous green wool from Friends’ Folly Farm. I only have about 257 yards, so we’ll see how big it gets. I might think about a contrasting border, a la some of brokeknits’ most recent projects.

Plus, blackberry muffins were made (with last season’s berries). Along with a bunch of pesto-minus-the-parmesan that went straight into the freezer.

Whew! We are going to sleep well tonight! (Who am I kidding? Boh is already asleep.)

FO: parritch. (Also, peonies.)

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It was humid this weekend, which meant that Parritch took forever to dry. Just before heading out to dinner on Saturday, I considered wearing the still slightly damp skein as a necklace. Awesome, no?

The colors are tough to photograph, but boy, are they lovely. This is 155 yards of sproingy, squishy 3-ply, in the Parritch colorway of some Hello Yarn Fiber Club targhee. I’m tempted to just turn it into a simple cowl, but I might also dig through my handspun pile to see if it might pair nicely with another skein or two so that I can make a bigger, floppier, cozier cowl – or a big comfy shawl. I’ve been inspired by some feather and fan shawls with lots of handspun colorways — and I do have a pile of handspun leftovers to throw into the mix. Just an idea. Also — I am toying with a big handspun pinwheel. Cosy over at cosymakes just finished one and I adore it. Also, I have some wedding gifts to knit this summer, and I’m thinking pinwheel lap blankets. I’ve given three as wedding gifts so far, and my friends seem to really like them. So, onto the eventual to-knit list: pinwheels for weddings, and a pinwheel for me!

Also, I said there were peonies. And there are. I clipped most of the blossoms that were starting to droop down over the driveway, which means there are small jars and vases of peonies in every room. I’ve had a rather exciting twenty-four hours in tenant land, as there is a new/substantial leak that has repeatedly filled my stock pot and prompted a ceiling tile or two to crumble to the ground in the middle of the night (hello, howling dog). I’m hoping the plumber will be here tomorrow. In the meantime, I’m going to keep spinning and enjoy my peonies. Want to see more of those Corriedale Seasick singles?

Be still my heart. This will definitely be a shawl. But which one?

the future is bright.

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At least, that’s what my dear friend P. said last Friday night when she looked at that tray o’ dumplings and slipped on her shades. It has been a week of visitors — meaning lots of extra puppy love for Boh. See?

P. made a quick stop-over on a cross-country drive, and then D. pressed pause on his whirlwind of round-the-globe travel/work to spend a few days in my smaller-town life. We also made dumplings (an homage to the vast number of dumplings we used to routinely inhale when we were roommates on the other side of the world), curled up with the dog — and made blueberry pancakes.

It is just us again. Here is Boh’s response:

I think he misses our house guests.

Today I did lots of laundry and end-of-the-semester apartment cleaning. The books keep multiplying, and while I foresee adding another bookshelf in the very near future, I decided to spend some time making more room on my existing shelves. (This is clearly code for further compressing my stash into my yarn containers to shift the ratio of yarn: books on my shelves…) Also, I finally sat down and plied up that gorgeous targhee from Hello Yarn in the Parritch colorway.

This may be a bit overplied. I am giving it a nice warm soak right now, and I’m hoping it will relax into a squishy 3-ply.

I even have some knitting to share! This is my citron shawl. The first few sections have gone quite quickly, though I realize I’m going to slow way down as my stitch count continues to increase. I am having a great time with this project — it requires just the right amount of attention, and the Classic Elite Silky Alpaca Lace is lovely.

Happy weekend!

classic.

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This is my dad’s caesar salad — a staple of my childhood, and an oft asked for part of my repertoire. (All credit to Dad — I’ve never had a better caesar salad. Ever.) We had dinner at the home of friends on Wednesday, and the salad was requested. I had quite a bit of romaine leftover, and this afternoon, after submitting my grades (see what I did there?) I mixed up another big bowl all for me. It was the perfect way to celebrate the end of the semester. (Shout out to brokeknits — this salad on a teal sidetable is, of course, a nod to your signature photo-style.)

Please allow me an awkward transition as we move from a classic caesar to Classic Elite. See, I’ve got this gorgeous purpley laceweight, and I’m kinda sorta thinking it would be perfect with this dress, even though there isn’t exactly purple in the print. What do you think? Am I nuts? I feel like there might be the slightest hint of purple in the transitions from pink to grey, but mostly I’m thinking that this looks nice against the pale pink and the coral. More advice, please!

Also, here’s Boh, post-walk.

And while he napped, I spun the third bobbin of this luscious Hello Yarn targhee in Parritch.  Can’t wait to ply.  Happy Friday!

delphiniums.

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So pretty. Also, a crucially important step towards completing a big pile o’ grading. (I’m making progress.)

Boh is not helping.

An idea — too orange, right? I had to check the handspun pile. Thank you for all of your shawl and shrug ideas. Right now, I’m leaning towards making a deep pinky-coral colored Citron. And then after that, I’ll make one in handspun. Got any leads on a really good deep pink/coral color in lace or fingering weight yarn? You guys always have the answers.

Also, I found some time to spin up a second bobbin of this Hello Yarn targhee in Parritch. I really have missed my wheel. Alright, back to grading!

too cool for school?

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sockswithchacos

I realize there is a serious debate raging out there in the universe about whether this is acceptable, but I do it all the time. I usually wear my Chacos with commercial wool hiking socks, but yesterday I decided to try it with hand-knit socks. It was a cool, grey but not rainy day, and it was so nice to be able to look down and admire my pretty socks!

handspunshawl1

handspun shawl2

I finished my shawl yesterday! I ended up using some leftover purple Araucania Nature Wool from my fad classic to lengthen it by a few rows and create a crisper edge.

handspun shawl3

The shawl isn’t huge, but it can wrap around my shoulders, though I think I’ll probably wear it more like a scarf. In order to get a bit more width, I soaked the shawl and pinned it out to block.

handspunshawl4block

handspun5macroblock

It should be dry this afternoon. I’ll say it again: these blocking squares are awesome.

hibiscusFO1

hibiscusFO2

Here is my very happy skein of AVFKW targhee in the hibiscus colorway. I spun up 3 oz., which yielded 240 yards of 2-ply in a dk weight. Targhee may be my favorite fiber to spin — I cannot get over how soft and squooshy this skein feels!

hibiscusFO3

On the list for today? A mixture of school (reading), life (a few groceries), and play (a long walk with Boh). Happy Friday, folks!

yarn in the sink.

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Last night I stayed up late to finish plying my never-ending bobbins of targhee together. I wound it onto the niddy noddy, counted the strands, took a few pictures, and then placed it in a hot water bath with some soak wash. About 30 seconds later, I realized I was incredibly tired, and went about getting ready for bed: I straightened up the kitchen, took Boh out, put on my pajamas, etc. And then I went to brush my teeth, only to look down and realize that there was yarn in the sink. (I may have used a colorful word or two.) I stayed awake for another ten or fifteen minutes in order to give the yarn the bath it deserved, and then rolled it in a towel, snapped/thwacked a few times, and finally hung it to dry.

plied hibiscus

Here it is, pre-bath, nestled on one of my favorite (store bought) sweaters. This stuff is soooo soft, and it is almost dry. (I keep petting it whenever I am in the kitchen.)

leftovers hibiscus

Here’s what was leftover on one of the bobbins. This is one of my most consistent spins to date, so this massive imbalance on the bobbins indicates to me that it might be time to acquire a kitchen scale so that I can split my fiber more evenly, particularly as I start thinking about bigger spinning projects.

fluff fibers

Lastly, this came in the mail yesterday: 2 bumps of superwash merino from FLUFF fibers in the Beach Day and Jungle Flowers colorways. Yay!