Author: denisemor

The weather has turned on us, and its now snowing and blowing all over the place.
Ick.

But inside, by the glow of the pellet stove, the spinning of Chone’s last fleece continues

Two more bobbins, fresh from Sigrid the Norwegian slanty girl

And plied on Moto the e-spinner

Brings the yardage total to 916.

I’ve got about 6 ounces left to go, which is about 7 more hours of spinning time.

I’m really loving this yarn. I find it hard to photograph because of it’s dark color, but it feels amazing.
Light and lofty, with just a touch of lanolin left in.
Will need to find just the right pattern for it.

In other news, I’m making good progress on the multicolor vest, and working on writing up the vest pattern to share with folks.
I’m not planning on repeating my “afterthought saddle shoulders” on this one, so am trying to sort out what is the best way to work the shoulder and neckline shaping so that it sets up the shawl collar the same way the first one came out. Getting close to an answer, but won’t know for sure until I try it out on the current version.

About 15 inches in now, and into the violet part of the color spectrum!

I picked up some seriously tiny needles this weekend

Size 0, length 9″. (also got size 2 and 3)
The tips are only about an inch and a half long, so it’s a little different holding them, but I think I’m getting the hang of it.

I’m excited about the possibilities.
These might revolutionize the way I knit socks.
And mittens.
I really got them so that I could make some of the really neat stranded colorwork mitten patterns that I have saved on Ravelry, but never started because doing stranded knitting on double pointed needles is so fiddly.

In other knitting news, I’m still making good progress on vest #2-

Just got past the underarms, and am now shaping the armholes and the deep v-neck. Colorwise, I’m transitioning out of purple into violet. And I really like how the color scheme is working out so far.

That’s about it for now- thanks to everyone who came out to the expo on Saturday. It was a lot of fun talking wool and wheels with folks all day.

Just keep spinning,,, just keep spinning,,,,

I kept some of Chone’s last fleece.

I don’t know if it seems undignified to have sheared him after he passed, but I didn’t want to waste the lovely wool that he’d grown over the last 9 or so months.

It’s probably the nicest wool he’d ever produced- and I want to do something special with his last fleece.

I’ve been trying to honor his memory over the last couple of weeks by spending time spinning his wool, and have enlisted the help of Sigrid, my antique scandinavian wheel, in this effort.

I finished my trial skein last week. Once washed and dried it came out to about 2.25 oz and 145 yards, which I think makes it about DK weight.

So that is the standard for this project. I think I have about 1.25 pounds of his wool. If I spin to those specs I can turn it into nearly 1300 yards of lovely, lofty, Chone-y yarn. A sweater-able amount (though no idea on what sweater that might be yet)

I am really enjoying spinning on Sigrid. I’d almost forgotten how much I love the momentum of her big 25″ wheel, and the feel of the double drive when the tension is set just right. It’s very relaxing.

I’ve almost filled two Sigrid bobbins this weekend, so tomorrow we ply! (thankful to have the MLK day holiday off)
She’s not one to work in the counterclockwise direction. For that I will depend upon Moto 🙂

Tomorrow I’ve also get myself organized for the Country Living Expo!

This weekend was exactly what I needed to get out of the dark frame of mind I’ve been in the last two weeks.

It was beautiful and sunny, and I was due to give the sheep hooves a trim. And with the loss of Chone still fresh on my mind, I was kind of expecting the worst -figured they’d be a mess.

But I was relieved to be wrong. They were better than last month.
I’m not sure, but it might have to do with a new supplement I’m trying.

They love alfalfa pellets, so it’s easy to get them to eat the stuff- which is nice, because they don’t seem to find their regular mineral very palatable (?)

Anyway, getting that out of the way Saturday morning got me off to a good start.

By the afternoon, I was ready to embark on a baking challenge that I’d been thinking about for a long time.
The Swedish Princess Cake has been on my mind ever since I saw it on the Great British Baking Show.
But it was kind of daunting. Lots of elements that I’d never done before- Genoese sponge cake, pastry cream, marzipan.

It took me probably close to 6 hours (including chilling time) but I finally got it baked, assembled and covered in marzipan!

And here is the layered interior

It’s pretty tasty- but so sweet and rich! I think it’s the marzipan that puts it over the top for me.

The other sweet I worked on this weekend was fleece from my dear departed little buddy

Quality time with Chone’s lovely wool was very therapeutic.