Author: denisemor

Or so I am told.

I didn’t actually meet any of these sheep, but I did find some new-to-me wools of southeast regional breeds that should be fun to test drive!

Neat, eh? That’s Gulf Coast Native and Florida Cracker Sheep wool (plus a bit of an undisclosed blend in a colorway I couldn’t resist). Was in town visiting family, and discovered there was a fiber mill right in the neighborhood! So couldn’t miss the opportunity for a field trip.

If you are ever in New Smyrna Beach, check out Pioneer Fiber Mill. Was cool to see what they have going on there- they have beautiful Belfast MiniMills equipment including a De-Veg-er ( I think maybe that is the fiber separator in the website) and a little retail corner in the mill with fiber and yarn.

Also was able to get almost three hats knit up in the travel to and fro.

These thick and cozy caps (and lots of other woolies) will be available next Sunday at the Alger Holiday Market

Have a good week!

The Griff Twisted stitches vest is a wrap!

And here it is with the collar turned back-

And the armhole finishing detail

Only loose ends to be woven in, then it’s ready to wear. So excited about how the mods works out. 🙂

Was really a fun, satisfying knit too. One I could see doing again, maybe an Esther version?

And speaking of flying needles, did some planning this weekend for travel knitting. Arguably the most important bit of packing.

Enough to keep the hands busy for a week? We shall see—

7.93 inches of rain so far this month. 2.39 of that today alone

I’m very thankful that the sheep and chickens have a comfy shed to hang out in. I went out and got some more straw this afternoon so they have fresh bedding. Everything gets mucky fast when it’s so wet out there.

Inside, I made some progress today on prep for my Expo zoom class. I shot a set of short videos documenting the washing of a batch of fleece. Hoping that The Man can help me edit it into a useful little demo for the class.

I’m really happy with how the Jacob fleece from down the road is washing up. Very soft and fluffy-

Next up, carding! hand carding, drum carding, flick carding. options abound—

And, I am excited to report that I just cast off the back of the Griff Traveling Stitches vest!

I think tiny Gus is kind of jealous. I might need to make one for him one as well. It would look super cute on him. 🙂

So now it’s time for blocking. Blocking and assembling, before I can work on the neckline. I am kind of anxious to see how my v-neck/shawl collar hybrid is going to play out. Looks like I’m doing ok on yarn yardage, so that’s a relief. Enough left for a nice substantial collar.

Alrighty folks. Hope you and yours are all staying dry and safe as the waters continue to rise.

In the making category-my Griff Traveling Stitches vest continues to flow fairly smoothly off the needles- I’ve made a few silly mistakes along the way, but nothing that I haven’t been able to fix by dropping back a few stitches and rearranging/reknitting.

I’m just finishing the waist shaping on the back. At this rate, I might have this done in a couple weeks.

I haven’t been able to find any pictures of the kind of neckline/collar that I’m envisioning. But it seems like it should work….

Took a little break from knitting this weekend to do a little spinning. This is more of that gray mystery fleece from back in August that made such a nice squishy cap. Silver lining to cold rainy weather is being able to dry yarn on the pellet stove again.

Think I’ll do the same thing again, chaining the yarn as I knit to make it kind of aran/chunky weight.

And in the mending category- I got my neat little darning loom out to finally fix a hole in a wool top that I’d left too long. It had started to run, and so I figured it was now or never.

Here I am in stage two of the mend

Stage three complete-

I should have taken a before pic (oops) but you can get an idea of the damaged area from the back

It was a little tricky getting it mounted on the darning loom because the fabric is pretty stretchy, but it got easier as I went on (anchoring each sucessive patch in the edge of the previous). Hopefully now this comfy shirt will see much more wear. yay!

And also this week, I got some lovely quince from Schoonover Farm. OMG folks, have you ever smelled quince? (if only someone could develop scratch and sniff technology for the web)

And today The Man turned them into jam

So yum.

Have a good week everyone-