Fiberjoy

There’s always someone willing to push the envelope. Think outside the box. Get radical.

You want radical?

As in big knitting needles?

Beyond big.

Huge.

Oh, you’d like to see a bigger picture?

Big enough?

Another perspective.

Sizes from smallest to largest: Brittany US2/2.75mm DPN in the socks (no, Ed doesn’t make small dpns -simply not worth the wood and effort). The rest are Jenkins needles: US3/3.25mm 32″L circulars; US50/25mm 14″L straight needles14″long straight (measurement of actual working surface); set of 50mm 60″L circular needles and one set of four 50mm 14″L dpn. Do you think they’d qualify for the Guinness Book of World Records? hmm

When the special request came in for a pair of size 50mm knitting needles we immediately assumed she wanted US50 which are 25mm. Ed scrounged around in the pantry looking for a cylinder of the equivalent size. Ah Ha. A baby food jar! Yep, that was about the size she was envisioning for a design she had in mind. Thinking way outside the lines. I just received an email from her today and she’s over the moon about them. I can hardly wait to see the promised pictures of completed works!

Can you imagine knitting with those huge pieces of wood?

Housekeeping:
My Yahoo email seems to be misbehaving. (After nearly a decade of no problems with that account. boo-hoo) With the exception of a personal email early Sunday and another one this afternoon only listserve emails seem to be getting through. A couple weeks ago a listserve I occassional visit sent a warning about a vicious spammer who’s hacked into listserves (including that listserve) and stolen emails info. Monday a spam arrived inbox using MY email as the sender! Something to do with 75% off. I never send out emails like that. If I were ever to promote a sale I would specify the exact product, plus I’d use our business address, not my personal one. I suspect that now my addy is being aggressively filtered. As a result I set up an account with gmail. If you’d like my new address, leave a comment and I’ll reply from the new address. The annoyances of modern communications and staying a step ahead of culprits.

Whew! It’s been awhile since I last posted, now I’m thrown a bit off balance from what I’d intended to post. Guess it’s time for an update on a couple finished projects and other tidbits of happenings.

First: My Learn to Spin with a Turkish Spindle DVD is finally finished and copies are going out the door. It’s the 28minute companion to my booklet. They are sold as one unit. If you’ve been wanting to learn how to spin, hesitate no longer. With our beautiful heirloom quality spindles that spin superbly, the book/dvd, and practice on your part you’ll get the hang of spinning in no time.

What else have has happened? Why, music! Crooked Finger Band had back to back Saturday night gigs. The first was a Valentine/spagetti dinner fundraiser for a semi-local church. We’ve done this night for the last five years which makes it a very comfortable, fun outing for us. We felt it was our best performance to date.

This past Saturday we drove 60 miles along some very curvy through the Cascade foothills to play for a woman’s retreat at the camp where Ed and I met 30+ years ago while on summer staff. I’d forgotten just how many hairpin turns there are on the last 10 miles! After setting up I quickly disappeared for a bit to walk among the trees and indulge in some wonderful memories.

We’ve never played in this type of setting so planned a varied playlist that included a good number of sing along songs mixed with our regular pieces. By the half time break the ladies were upbeat and full of energy. When someone asked if we could play a reel while they danced the Virginia reel, all the chairs and couches were quickly pushed against the walls and two lines formed and away they twirled, our singers joining them, as those of us with instruments played until they collapsed.
(Sorry about the fuzzy picture!)

Here’s a bit of spinning from January:

3.5 ounces Corriedale Pencil Roving
380 2 ply yards ca.
Spun on Louet Victoria

I find it interesting that it’s much easier to spin consistently with my spindle. Perhaps as I spin more with the Victoria it’ll even out. I suspect I’ll always prefer using Turk spindles.

The Monkey Socks, the knitting inspiration behind my tongue in cheek definition of the old saying “Mind your Ps and Qs”, were finished Saturday having missed DIL’s birthday by just two days. I spent over four hours knitting away Thursday hoping to get them done but by early afternoon crazy mistakes were being made so they were safely tucked away until a clearer brain prevailed.

The Pattern: Monkey by Cookie A.
By the fourth pattern repeat I had the pattern pretty much memorized. I probably will make more Monkey Socks in the future as I like the puffy, crazy look.
Yarn: Trekking 75% Wool/25% Nylon
I bought the yarn about five or six years ago. I’m not sure if age had something to do with the slight sticky feeling.

Needles: Brittany #2
I’ve been spoiled with Ed’s sharp needles and the rounded tips were driving me crazy so I laid a piece of fine grit sanding paper on the table and rolled each dpn back and forth until they were sharp.

Speaking of needles…next time around you’ll see what Ed made for a special, custom order. Did someone say BIG?

We’ve had some incredibly beautiful weather for the past five days. Just look at Mt Hood! The camp we were at is some where along one of the tree covered ridges.