Hiding from the US Open

Yeah, the US Open is "still" in town, just up the road. The Photographer and I spent most of the weekend just hiding out at home trying to avoid the traffic. Can you believe they're playing again today! I thought I'd be free to get out and about by now.

I pulled out my drumcarder; I wanted to try something I'd read on Abby's Blog. (Sorry I can't find the exact entry now when I want to link to it) Whenever I've tried to card fiber with silk in it all I get are neps - horrible neps everywhere. Not to mention the long silk fibers all wrapped around the smaller carding drum, a terrible waste of expensive silk! Abby suggests you don't add your silk until the last or second to last trip through the carder. You take your batt and split it lengthwise, lay out your silk on top of one half-batt and lay the second batt on top making a silk sandwich between two half-batts. So that's what I've been doing with (in my opinion) great success.

I've been using up bits of wool dyed at one time or another; three different yellow wools, two orange wools, a fuchsia wool, fuchsia and white silk and at the end some white tussah for a streaky effect. I'm rather happy with the look and feel. And almost no neps at all - yeah!


The color is very much the color of an Orangecicle so that's what I'm calling it. Once I'm done with this blog entry and move the wash to the dryer I'm going to start spinning.

Fairisle is still entrancing me; I started the Tile Socks (Ravelry link) from Socks, Socks, Socks.


I'm getting their gauge but the socks are too big so I'm going to rip what you see out and start over again with one size smaller needles. The pattern calls for sport weight yarn, I'm using Louet Gems Sport Weight, and size 4 & 5 needles. We'll see if that will tighten up the fabric enough.

Several emails want to know what's happened with the ZigBagZ. I'm working on the handles currently. This is taking me awhile; the double sided Icord is done extremely tightly with two strands of Cascade 220. I'm find this very hard on my bad arm so I can only knit on a handle for 10 mins everyother day. First handle is done and I'm ready to start the second handle. I'm not in a big rush to finish all the knitting because then it's felting time. I'm VERY nervous about the felting part; I only have a 50% felting success rate and I can't stand the thought of this bag not turning out.

Thank you for all the get-well wishes for Annie - she's seems to be back to her regular old happy dog self. She can't have her favorite chicken jerky treats (from China via Costco - the Vet said No, No!) so I tried baking her cookies. She has allergies to wheat, corn and beef so it was difficult to find a recipe to use so I just tried a few mixes of my own concoction.


First batch on the left were the consistency and crispiness I was looking for but my taste tester was only ho-hum about them. Second batch on the right aren't crispy at all more of a Molasses cookie consistency but Annie loves them. The Photographer even tried the second batch and says they have a fishy taste. My secret is several jars of Chicken Baby Food. If you're interested in the recipe email me and I'll be happy to send it to you and your pup. (This is the way to bake cookies and Not be tempted to eat any of them!)

The Photographer filled his weekend playing around with lighting. I had an Asiatic Lily in bloom that was happy to sit around modeling all weekend with no complaints.