Behind and blogging. How long will this post get… let’s play catch up and see!

Estes Park wool market!

I was flying solo this year. Me and the tiny people did pretty well. We walked, both kids in backpacks with leashes on them. Don’t harass me, it kept the kids safe. I ended up carrying Mr K aroud a bit.

We met up with Ellen of Wooly Wonders and showed her the dragons we had knit from her pattern. I figured after all the questions I had asked, the least I could do was show her them in real life!!

At one point the kids walked over to a wall of alpaca yarn and started touching skeins and looking at price tags.

I’m so proud of them!

They loved petting the alpacas, seeing the goats, and got to hug a sheep!

THEN!
It was the Renaissance Festival! The kids got new costumes. I had some green fabric in my stash that I thought would be perfect for them. Honestly, I think it’s silk, but that makes it even better for kiddo costumes- it wears well, washes well, looks awesome, and breathes well.

I tried making them hats and wings and failed at both, so I got them some when we got there. I was planing to get them muffin caps, but they LOVED these hats. That’s actually K’s kilt from last year, now that he’s wearing undies (AND USING THE POTTY!!) it still fits! I made T’s dress a few sizes too big so that we can use it for a few years. K’s gonna need a new shirt- his melon is almost to big to get into this shirt.

I didn’t take a pict, but I attached a pair of plastic horses to the front of the stroller (yes, brought the stroller, much easier!). I got so many laughs and compliments on that!

And finally…

I discovered I had a couple of albums in my possession that were worth over a hundred dollars, each. In fact, one was worth about 400. No joke. Ebay here I come. Just guess what I did with that money- guess!

I scoured ebay again until I found this gem!! It’s a legare 400. I bought it from a woman who had bought it refurbished about 3 years ago so it’s in good shape. I took it over to Hank and Candy, local crankers who do good work making sock machines happy. I’m getting the insides media blasted to get the rust off and make it AWESOME. I can’t wait to get it back.

I have lots and lots of pictures from all of these adventures over at my flikr. T is having a great time with the camera and documented my unpacking of the sock machine. What a big helper.

Inspired

Back before Princess T was born, I was the newsletter editor for the Rocky Mountain Weavers Guild. I was given a few boxes of old newsletters for inspiration and helpful hints. Sadly, I didn’t look through the boxes much, until recently. RMWG has almost always had a weaving sample in their newsletter, and sometimes  a spinning sample. The spinning samples are newer thing. So I went through the boxes and pulled out all the weaving and spinning samples I could find. And I’m totally inspired. This is why I kept them- I love looking and examples of what people have done. And usually you get the draw down so you can repeat if yourself!

I saw a yarn that was a 2 ply- one ply was wool and one ply was silk. I was hit by a lighting bolt. I’ve got some purple BFL that I’ve been sitting on, wondering  just what to do with it. I’ve got some green silk hankies. I have inspiration. I will have yarn soon.

when knitting

Dear self,
When you are knitting, please pay attention.
I think you did some crazy wrap and turn, added stitches, and forgot where you were at, thereby finishing what should have been a purl row as knit.
Good thing you are just swatching!

Busted CSM

In trying to get some work done on the CSM this morning, I dropped the cylinder and broke it into 5 parts. I’m on the look out for a new one, I guess.

sigh.

CSM!!

I believe I will name my new sock knitting machine Koloth.

Because he is a cranky old man who likes lots of weight.

Facial casting

It’s been a while since I’ve done much casting, I did a friends pregnant belly recently but I’ve been jonsing to do some facial casts and masks. The husband and I had been discussing if our 3 year old would be a good model for a facial cast. I finally finished a huge project I’ve been working on (wedding dress alterations) and started busting out the casting and mask making materials. Tiny T takes an interest, so I discuss with her what it would take to do a facial cast on her. She’s game. We have a dry run, well, a wet run, I covered her face with wet wash cloths to see if she would sit there long enough and listen to my instructions. She did an awesome job so we busted out the plaster.

I am now the maker of a 3 year old’s facial cast. And I think that’s the only facial cast of a toddler in the whole wide world. Come tomorrow, we make a positive cast of it. And start mask making. If I can find my plasticine.

words

The new Loom

Meet my new Weaving loom! I haven’t quite named it yet. It’s almost all together- I’m in need of some hooks and cords for my pedals… which is kind of the reason for this post….

It’s a Nilus LeCleric. It has 8 shafts and 8 pedals. It’s got a 27 inch weaving width. The loom itself is about 38 inches. (ha, I measured it yesterday to prove that it will not fit out the door in it’s current state.) It’s serial number is N26.601.20 and from Tom, the American LeCleric guy, “Your loom has a very early canadian issue number, and Leclerc(Francois) cannot find the origin in his archive files, but the concensus is your loom was mnfgrd in Jan of 1960.” Sweet. I got a Hippy Loom. 8-)

It’s warped up with some blue mill ends (no idea of the content) that I am hoping to make some kid lap blankets. Then I’ve got some scarves to make. Then some bathmats with sock loops. Uh, I had something else I was going to do to. hm.

side view

front view

view of the pedals and the current set up. You really need to see the full sized picture to see it in all it’s ghetto-rig glory.

A close up of my ghetto rig. Don’t laugh, I thought it would work.

This also came with the loom and I have no idea what it is…

The box said warping board- so I assumed it was a (really tiny!) warping board, but obvously it’s not. I’ve looked around the LeClerc website and can’t really find out what it is…

Send chocolate, boxes, and interested parties….

I am cleaning my crafting studio.

Holy cow.

I’m at the worse before it gets better part.

I keep trying to list various bits on craigs list. I’ve got some really cool bits of fabric, that while being cool, I will just never get around to using. Unfortunately coordinating stuff on craigslist sometimes is a pain, and taking a box over to the thrift store is much easier. Seriously, there needs to be a thrift/consignment hybrid.Consignment stores rule, but I’ve really only ever seen them for baby things and clothes.

Why the great clean up? I got tired of some of the mess. I want to knock out half a wall to have a kids play area where we can see each other. I have a tri loom coming and need some room for it. 8-)

I’m writing about it because I’m starting to despair. I don’t know if I will EVAR get done!

And I’ve gotten two major Christmas presents done. Must send……

New Loom!

Even though i decided to keep the big loom, every once in a while I question that decision because, well, it’s huge. I posted it on craigs list thinking if there is someone who wants it it would be gone but if not I’ll just keep it. I had listed it almost a month a go when last week someone emails me about it. Turns out she’s commuting a fair distance for her fiber arts degree and wants a loom at home to reduce commuting. And the looms they have at school? Exactly like mine1 So we disassemble it and off it goes. I get back on craigslist and find one close to what I’m looking for. I take the tiny kids for a pretty long drive and get a new loom! It’s an 8 harness, 27 inch Leclerc Nilus. It had to be disassembled to fit in my car. So I spend a few days obsessing over it, cleaning it, and getting some new hardware. It’s all together now. It appears the trick to getting their warp beam tensioner on is a big strong boy. Literally two days of me trying to get it on and my husband walks down stars and hooks it up with one try and no straining. gr. I need to cut some cord for the tie ups, but I would like to look at some different options and ideas. While spinners and weavers are all over the net, it appears that us knitters haven’t caught up yet. It was fun having it all apart. It’s ALL clean and I painted the heddles to see the different shafts.
I’m so excited, I would just start warping. Maybe I will. 8-)

No pict yet, as I just finished it last night.