Tour de Bebé Sweater

Everyone is excited about the Tour de Fleece around here.

Even T.K. Is getting in the spirit.

Once I hit my goal of finishing the singles for my SPAKAL sweater, I desperately needed to spin something with COLOR. I knew that I wanted to spin for a sweater for Genevieve, but the rest of the details were a bit hazy.

I dug around in my stash for a bit and found a couple of bumps of fiber that I picked up at the CogKNITive Fiber retreat.

FreckleFace Fibers BFL "Enchanted"

I knew that 4.2 ounces wouldn't be enough, so I dug a little more and found a coordinating bump of fiber:

FreckleFace Fibers BFL "Midnight Moon"

But it still wasn't juuuuuust right, so I fished a little deeper and came up with a third bump, which I think will tie it all together nicely.

Abstract Fiber BFL "Maleficent"

Spinning BFL is wonderful; it's a longish fiber that is both silky and soft, and the SMELL. Mmmmm! It's the browned butter of the fiber world.

I've been making amazing progress - it practically spins itself! I can't wait to get it all plied up and start a (not-so) tiny sweater for my DangerMouse.

Spinning wheel goes VROOM!

My peleton awaits.

Tour de SPAKAL

On the podcast, we are doing a SPAKAL (pronounced like spackle)- a SPin-A-Long-Knit-A-Long . I declared that we would ALL be spinning for a sweater between March and September.

Rambouillet X from a ram named "Carbon"

Spinning for a sweater isn't something unusual for me- I usually spin for 2 or 3 sweaters every year. You know, that I actually knit. (Andrew: this has ZERO bearing on how many fleeces I buy - or should be buying - every year.)

Awwww yeeeeeeah.

A lot of the podcast listeners have asked questions about spinning for sweaters. My mother is a big proponent of learning through doing. We were all going to do this project together, and learn from it, and we would like it if it KILLS US. (Or something like that.)

24 oz of singles

My initial Tour de Fleece goal was to spin the last half of my singles- 12 oz. I hadn't had a chance to spin much before and I really, truly thought that spinning 12 oz would be a stretch.

I knocked that goal out of the park. Currently, those lovely singles are waiting to be swatched.

Next stop: plying. Those singles all have lofty goals, the main one being to grow up into this sweater.

Eadon by Susanna IC

Vive le Tour!

Oatmeal and butter

This weekend was challenging, and I am the only one to blame for it. Before I get into the challenging bit, here's something that is going really well:

Oatmeal CVM from Patti Sexton, Monterey Wool Auction 2010

Plying! I spun 9 oz of CVM singles on a borrowed Hansen Minispinner while I was expecting  DangerMouse. Since I'm getting ready to start my SPAKAL spinning, I thought I should ply the TWO sweaters worth of singles I have resting on the plastic weaving bobbins. (This is, for the record, the only issue with using the plastic weaving bobbins for storing singles.)

I spun this woolen, because the staple length is on the shorter side, and if I thought I loved spinning it, it wasn't as much as I'm loving plying it. I just need to set it and pick which Hannah Fettig sweater I'm knitting out of it. Plying this makes me feel really accomplished and incredibly talented.

It also makes DangerMouse sleeeeeeepy.

(This is important to point out. I'm not just being a bragger-sandwich.)

I spent Saturday in the kitchen. Between baking sugar cookies for Easter dinner with my in-laws and doing prep for Easter brunch (at our house), my kitchen was a'bustlin' with activity. I really, really missed cooking and baking and it's so satisfying to be able to get back to it.

I pulled out my trusty copy of Joy of Cooking and looked at the recipe for sugar cookies. We were looking to make cookies that look like these:

Image stolen from justcrumbs. But seriously, go check out her etsy shop.

So. Sugar cookies. I looked at the recipe, and the recipe says it will make 3 dozen 2" round cookies. My cookie cutter was a 3" egg, and my brain mangled the math. I read "3 dozen 1" round cookies".

So I quadrupled the recipe. QUADUPLED.

"This is SUCH a good idea!" I kept saying, "I'm so excited to be baking! And they're going to be SO CUTE."

That meant using 10 sticks of butter. Somehow, this made PERFECT SENSE to me. I went along, cheerfully mixing, rolling out, and refrigerating the dough. Then it was time to cut out the cookies and bake them.

I made use of Andrew and his excellent spatial skills, so he did the cutting out, and I fired up my oven to the "convection" setting. (Three sheets of cookies baking evenly, simultaneously. It makes my heart skip a beat. But that might be the butter talking.)

After AN HOUR of cutting out cookies, Andrew asks how many more we're planning to do. It was at this point that I realize, we will have OVER ONE HUNDRED 3" eggs. That we're going to decorate.

Andrew may have voiced some concern about halfway through, to which I kept insisting, "This is STILL a good idea."

After the cookies were all baked (minus the scraps, which Mom rolled and froze for later use), I looked at the stack and nearly wept at the idea of having to ice and decorate all. These. Cookies.

This is only some of them.

Andrew had the great idea to only decorate the 48 cookies we were planning to take to Easter dinner, and it was an INSPIRED idea. We set up an assembly line, and iced, ear-ed, eye-d, and tail-ed the cookies.

I felt really stupid pretty, and to be totally honest, I was pretty hard on myself. Straight-up abusive. To his credit, Andrew insisted that it was STILL a good idea, the cookies were delicious, and hey! When have we ever had a hard time finding people interested in eating my baking?

Lesson learned? If you're tired and having a "pretty" day, have someone ELSE check your math.

Unless, of course, you have neighbors like ours, who told me that they would *cheerfully* take one for the team and help us out with the extras. It's definitely a tasty, tasty way to get closer to your neighbors.

What I do for love

I have completely lost my mind. We announced the SPAKAL (SPin-Along-Knit-A-Long, pronounced "spackle") on the podcast, and I declared that I would not *only* spin a sweater on my spinning wheel and knit the chosen sweater, but I would ALSO spin for a sweater using a drop spindle.

It's a KCL modular spindle, and that's orange Targhee X I'm spinning on it.

Yes, drop spindle is technically slower than wheel spinning. But, it happens to delight one certain DangerMouse, and I am a slave to her moods. Especially the good ones. Also, you really can't beat the fact that it keeps her actively engaged and entertained for 45 minutes at a time. (This is further proof that she really and truly is my daughter. You know, if you ever doubted it.)

I mean, wouldn't you spin for this face?

"The most interesting baby in the world" (captioned by Kidbrother Sam)

That's what I thought.

Too small

The pre-swatch swatch

A conversation:

Andrew: [Picks up swatches on table] What's this?
Me: Your sweater.
Andrew: [Holds up to his chest] It's a little small.
Me: ...
Me: Hm. Guess I'll have to rip it out and re-knit it.

Measure in wool

How do you measure ten years? RENT would have us believe that it's 5,256,000 minutes. While I love RENT, in our house, ten years looks like this:

That's what 2 lbs of singles looks like.

 
Seasons of love woooo-ooooo-ooooo-oool. Early in the year, I told Andrew that I would spin and knit him a sweater to commemorate ten years of being together. First, he picked which sweater he wanted me to knit for him:

Baseball jersey, from "Knits Men Want". Which, incredibly, they do!

It was a hard choice, since he has requested 90% of the sweaters in Knits Men Want, but I made him pick ONE. Step 2 was to select which fleeces would make the cut, so he chose a Romney/Rambouillet cross that I bought at Rhinebeck in 2009:

Meghan has the "twin" of this fleece. (The shot is a little dark, apologies.)

Gorgeous, right? I love how silvery it is. The fleece had AMAZING crimp, and was a joy to spin. My qualms are with how Zeilinger's processed it, leaving enough grease on it to make it smell rancid until I washed it again, myself. They also charged me extra weight (ahem, thumb on the scale, much?) on all three of the fleeces that they processed for me, and didn't bother to label which fleece was which, or how much finished weight I ended up with. I can't recommend them, sorry, Zeilinger's.

The "up" side of re-washing it is that I can enthusiastically recommend the unscented SOAK for getting nasty, stinky, rancid lanolin out of wool without stripping it completely dry. Way to go, SOAK!

(BONUS! According to their website, SOAK is biodegradable and non-toxic, so I take my grey water and pour it in my compost. The earthworms say it's like a spa treatment, but to be fair, they're earthworms, so take their recommendation with a grain of salt. Or a spoonful of compost.)

Andrew wanted a darker color for the sleeves/collar, and I may have guided him toward this beauty:

This fleece was streak-y like an Alpha Phi Omega pledge

This is a Merino/Border Leicester cross that I picked up from Black Sheep Gathering in 2010, and the incomparable Shari from Morro Fleece Works worked her magic on it:

Makes you want to reach out and touch, I know.

I wish I had gotten a picture of the fleece pre-processing, it had the most INCREDIBLE stark white skunk streak running through it. (I have an auntie who went grey the same way, and every time I see a streak that defined, I think of her hair.) You can see it in the picture above, with the locks I pulled from the fleece.

Blended and pindrafted, I love how it creates a heathered effect in the singles. I would love this fleece in a box with a fox, in a house with a mouse, or in this case, in a sweater for cooler weather.

The swatches have actually been done for almost a month, and Andrew asked what the hold-up was. The singles have been sitting on the coffee table for *approximately* the same length of time, being gorgeous and single. You know how they are, smug little things.

I told him that I couldn't ply the sweater until I took pictures of the singles for Ravelry. (Along with being gorgeous, single, and smug, they are also vain.) With the clock ticking down (with 127 days left in the year, about 1/3 for you lovers of fractions), I figured I should stop making excuses and actually see if I can finish in time.

Let the countdown begin.

Give novelty a whirl

Spinning novelty yarns is challenging.

I know that when people start spinning, it's really common for someone to say, "Wow! Your first time and you're spinning novelty yarn already!"

All right, I'm cool with the encouragement side of it; in fact, that's a much better approach than ripping someone's first spinning off the wheel and deeming it sub-standard. (Though, it would make a really funny SNL sketch. Niche, but still funny.)

I picked up the Sit and Spin DVD last year, and co-erced a friend (and the podcast intern) into giving novelty yarns a spin. The intern (K, the Wünderteen) was stellar at it. British Mary and I were... not so much.

Mary had the Bulky Plyer Flyer, and decided that she hated spinning novelty yarn. I decided that it must have been an equipment issue, because all I knew is that I MUST HAVE COILS. (In fact, if the DVD had nothing *but* coils on it, I would still have thought it was a good deal. They are SO FREAKING COOL!)

So, when Kevin over at HansenCrafts sent me a MiniSpinner to review, I spun sock yarn on it. I spun woolen fluffy yarn on it.

I spun coils on it.

I didn't say that they were *good* coils.

I'll be the first to admit, they're not amazing. Or created evenly. But I did it.

It was challenging to do. Based on the numbness in my lip afterward, I had my "concentrating" face on the whole time. You know what coils are? Fun.

How could you look at this and NOT want to [at least] try it?

Shame on you for not labeling your stuff, Mystery Etsy dyer! NO SOUP FOR YOU!

In any case, while my next coils might be less epic, I will love them just the same. I'll just have to wait until I get a MiniSpinner of My Very Own, since the review one is going back to Kevin this week.

Also, for those of you in the Blizzard-y states? I hope the groundhog declares Winter over. I also hope he's wearing day-glo, otherwise you might miss him.

Andean ply

Last night, I came to the realization that I needed to take some pictures and do a ton of plying. Here's why:

(This tray has four sides, all of which are full of bobbins.)

Yes, the bobbins aren't full-full. They all have about 1 oz of fiber, which needed to be photographed before I could get it plied up. Thanks to my photography lesson with the incomparable Jade, a little fiddling with my lighting, the settings on my camera, and using my sweet external flash yielded some pretty good results.

So, I sat down to do some plying. I got busy and plied up the Crown Mountain Farms Blue Faced Leicester (from the Fiber of the Month Club), and I got to the end of one bobbin and realized that I still had 20ish yards of single left on the other bobbin.

I've been listening to the Yarnspinner's Tales Podcast at night. Cindy has a lovely voice, and is probably the most articulate person I've ever listened to, when it comes to the technical side of knitting. I'm listening back from the beginning, and in one of the episodes, she talks about Andean plying. For the first time, it really clicked. Basically, you make a center-pull ball around your wrist, and then ply from both ends.

Sounds simple enough, right? So, I decided to use the new skill I learned to finish off the end of the ball. (Normally, I would have Andrew walk back until the spare yardage was exhausted, and then ply until the yardage was done.)

In watching a video on how it's done, there are flashier ways than simply wrapping your wrist with single, but Cindy's description yielded some pretty spectacular results for having done it sight unseen. (You can see a YouTube video of the "right" way of doing it here.) I'm also super-pleased with myself for learning a new spinning skill.

My real motive for feeling the need to clear out bobbins?

That's right, this is what 20 lbs of clean fleece from Morro Fleece Works looks like. My table? Not as spectacular.

My fleeces from Black Sheep Gathering 2010 have started arriving. They're big, beautiful, and demand to be spun.

Just like that disc of Mad Men demands to be watched. Coincidence? I think not.

Corrrrrrrrrrrrmo!

In the spirit of Jasmin 2010, I have been on a finishing binge. After the Tour de Fleece, I decided to finish up some spinning projects that were languishing on plastic weaving bobbins, and the first project on my list was the baby cormo fleece that I bought at the Retzlaff winery in 2009 and split with the fabulous Meghan.

Before I say anything else, you should know that this fleece is so soft and crimpy, that it's no longer just "cormo". You have to roll your r's. Rrrrrrrrr. Corrrrrrrrrrrrmo. It's that soft.

The baby is all grown up!

and finally:

I wish you could feel how fabulous this yarn is. When I was finishing the singles, Gnat was positively bombarding me with fantastic sweater suggestions, including the Baby Cables and Big Ones Too sweater.

Go ahead, click on it. It's GORGEOUS, and is totally feeding my current obsession with cables and yoked sweaters. Of course, from this blog you wouldn't know, since I haven't posted pictures of me in any of the sweaters I've finished except for the Mondo Cable Cardi, but they're coming.

For now, I'll pet the yarn until I cast on the sweater. Which, for the record is queued to get cast on after I finish ... something.

Tour de Fleece 2010: Day 25

Not to be a bragger, but VICTORY IS MINE!!!

Ahem. Sorry, I got carried away for a moment. I am so impossibly proud of this yarn, that I might be carrying it around with me. For more than just the regular [knitting] reason; I might be admiring it as I work, and it *might* be obscuring my wedding picture. (Andrew totally understands.)

I love this yarn. I love it so much, that I wrote a haiku for it:

I love this blue yarn.
Smells so good and feels awesome.
Fills my sink with joy.

Things that I have learned (or confirmed) during the Tour de Fleece 2010:

- If it's easy, it's not as fun.
- Good planning can't prevent the unexpected, but it makes the recovery easier.
- You don't need to know anything about the event that parallels with the Ravelympics/Tour de Fleece to have a good time competing. (PS, the best part of the 2010 Olympics was Michael Bublé.)
- Wearing biking gear is always fun, but spinning on a bike seat? Super uncomfortable.
- SOAK? Amazing for your woolens, and makes your jewelry sparkle, too!

Tour de Fleece 2010, Day 21: Everyone loves clean laundry

Between dealing with jerky-scented packages and today, I swatched up my singles:

One is a four-ply, one is a five-ply. The four-ply matched gauge, and frankly, the math on mixing the Lorna's Laces merino and the Susan's Spinning Bunny BFL worked better for four anyway. It looks like I'll have seven or eight skeins (which translates roughly into "More than enough yardage for my cardigan").

While I'm plying, I'm using my good ergonomics skills that I learned in the inimitable Carson Demer's class. I'm not stretching every 20 minutes, but I *am* multitasking when I stretch every 52 minutes.

"Why every 52 minutes?" you might ask.

Because that is how long it takes my washer/dryer to do its thing. I saw that Stephanie has decided to shear time off her day by opting out of laundry and housework, but I have found a way to do it all. To have it all! To spin and ply like a champion, and use the laundry and housework to extend spinning time. Lest you think I have lost my mind and allowed the Donna Reed dresses,epic fake pearls, and heels-made-for-vacuuming go to my head, give me a second to explain.

So, here's how it goes:

Step 1: Start a load of laundry. Set the kitchen timer (or in my case, cell phone timer) for the length of your wash cycle.
Step 2: Spin/ply until the alarm sounds.
Step 3: Move the wash into the dryer. Move a fresh load into the washer. Reset timer.
Step 4: Spin/ply until the alarm sounds.
Step 5: Unload dryer, move wash into the dryer. (If you have more laundry, use the timer and continue the rotation.)
Step 6: While the laundry is still delightfully hot from the dryer, lay it out flat. Once the pieces have been flattened and stacked, fold, using big mock-yoga movements. (Bonus points if you put the laundry away once it's folded.)
Step 7: Spin/ply until the alarm sounds.
Repeat as necessary.

This system has served me well, no repetitive stress injuries, happy back and shoulders, and clean laundry. Because let's face it, everyone loves clean laundry:

Tour de Fleece 2010, Day 20: Beef jerky and bearings

At the beginning of the Tour de Fleece, I had a massive equipment failure. Schacht, having the stellar customer service that they do, promptly mailed out the replacement part on 7/19- it was postmarked the *same day* I called them with a call of utmost urgency. The "RIDER DOWN!!!" hail.

For a brief moment, I thought, "Maybe Schacht has failed me. Maybe they're not as amazing as they were before. Maybe the gal who answered the phone MOCKED my distress, when I declared 'RIDER DOWN!!!' when I called." Ridiculous, I know. Frankly, I'm pretty sure if they could financially manage to send a live tech out to fix each and every problem, they would, given my previous experience. But that's Schacht.

Imagine my surprise when I fetched the mail today and noticed the "apology baggie" from the post office. You know, the one with the preprinted, "Ooops! We damaged your package!" (By the way. The bags being pre-printed has me convinced that this happens more often than it should.)

I was even *more* surprised to find that it was ... sticky. And brown. As one is wont to do when there is a mysterious sticky substance, I walked to the sink and - after a brief internal debate- smelled my hands. Don't act like you wouldn't have. Nobody wants Mysterious Sticky Substance to go unidentified. Because then it becomes the Unidentified Sticky Substance, and that is a thing we don't want.

It was a familiar smell. Sweet, salty, and ... meaty? Beef jerky. Somebody tossed their bag'o'jerky in with the mail and it LEAKED!

I don't want you to think that I'm some sort of Beef Jerky Egomaniac, but every time I had a beef jerky incident, it was only the contents of my *own* backpack that got jerkified in Teriyaki marinade.

Fortunately for everyone involved, it was merely the bag that got jerkified, and my rear flyer bearing housing/bearing (the "ball bearing thingie"'s real name) is made of metal and not wool, a quick rinse, dry, and it took me less than three minutes to take British Mary's off of my wheel, put my new one on, and then reassemble her wheel. I'm ready to ride!

Tour de Fleece: Day 12

Every day when I drive home, I pass an orchard. Today, they had apricots:

(See, everyone wants one. Including Elphie.)

I love apricots. I love the flavor, I love the color, I love the texture, and I love that they're a "two-bite" fruit. When I'm looking for the flavor of summer, it's a tie between apricots and watermelon.

I was so inspired by the fresh apricots (Blenheim and ... the other kind that the orchard had), that I had to work on something apricot colored. Víola!

I knew I had something close in my stash, and as you can see, I had to cast it on RIGHT away.

Mmm... tasty yarn, tasty apricots. You'll have to excuse me, I don't want to drip on the laptop. I also need to get my full apricot fix so that I can get back to my spinning wheel. (Let's face it, other than blueberries, blue food isn't as inspiring as apricots. It's also not in season.)

Oh, and just for good measure, a glamour shot of Niki. I wouldn't want him to feel unloved:

Tour de Fleece 2010: Day 11

The frustrating thing about the project I have chosen for Tour de Fleece is that my spinning looks the same, except that the bag of fluff is rapidly emptying and turning into the more-compact-and-promising tiny bobbins of singles.

The fiber is spinning itself, but I've hit a snag along the way:

For those of you not familiar with the mechanics of a Schacht Matchless, the bearing has flipped itself backwards. My mother-of-all can't sit in there. I can't flip it myself, and this happened on Saturday afternoon, on Day 7 of the tour.

Fortunately, I'm a resourceful competitor and was fortunate enough to have a friend's (British Mary) Matchless in my living room, waiting for a new driveband so that Mom can start spinning again. I cannibalized the part I needed from British Mary's wheel, and made a note to call Schacht tout de suite.

Despite having the "ball bearing thingie" issue bridged, I found myself restless and full of project ennui. I learned a new way of tying drivebands (thanks, Mary!), and replaced Miss Kalendar's. I think this is the cleverest, least crazy-making way of tying a driveband, and will have to roadtest it a bit more before offering a visual featurette for the technique.

This weekend, we went high culture with our movie choice, and watched the most recent Hamlet, starring David Tennant and Patrick Stewart. While I'm fond the good doctor and Sir Patrick (he was knighted, but sadly not with a bat'leth), I found Doctor Hamlet breaking the fourth wall by speaking directly to the camera *incredibly* uncomfortable, but got used to it. Also, David Tennant is adorable barefoot.

The one thing that really struck me was how *young* the character of Hamlet is supposed to be. I've read the play a zillion times, and it was just this week that I realized that Hamlet isn't an adult. He's eighteen or nineteen years old. This is a hard concept to grasp if you're used to seeing Mel Gibson's Hamlet, or Kenneth Brannaugh's Hamlet.

I don't think I've ever seen Hamlet played by an appropriately-aged actor; my first onscreen Hamlet experience was with the charming-but-lipless Kenneth Brannaugh. As it stands, David Tennant is the most youthful Hamlet I've seen so far.

I think the part would be more poignant played by a younger actor, but can't think of who I would cast. Maybe Michael Cera or Ken Baumann? (Sorry, Zac Efron, you're too old for this role.) After all, Miss Kalendar pointed out that Hamlet *was* the first emo.

Maybe Hamlet is more like Doctor Who; your first is always your favorite. (Don't worry David, you're still special to me. You're my first Doctor, after all!)

Tour de Fleece 2010: Day 4

Today's spinning looks like yesterday's, except that the bag is S-L-O-W-L-Y getting emptier as tiny blue bumps are being replaced by even tinier plastic weaving bobbins that are full of blue singles. I spun a little over 1 oz today, which keeps me delightfully ahead of schedule.

Given that athletes need good nutrition, so I made my favorite Texas Beef Chili. The recipe comes from a Williams Sonoma cookbook that I picked up at the Recycle Bookstore in Campbell, my favorite place to buy used cookbooks. It's delicious, and has taught me a few things in the kitchen.

Today alone I have learned useful things like:

- Cubing frozen meat is easier than trying to thaw it out, then cube it.
- Meat sears better when I'm multitasking; if I'm not multitasking, I'm only making the meat dizzy by pushing it around the pan. (Mom pointed this out.)
- No matter what, I'm going to get spattered. Even if I'm not cooking.
- Mise en place. Do it; it makes your kitchen run like a well-olive-oiled machine.
- Even if you're a tidy chef, if you've mopped the floor today, you are going to drop more on the floor today than you have in the last year. (We'll call this Jasmin's Law.)
- No matter how good your dish is, if your dessert isn't just as good, you may as well have served generic dog kibble.

On that note, I have learned that a beautiful dessert is something we all can enjoy, and that watching Top Chef, Ace of Cakes, and Cupcake Wars results in this type of dessert and presentation:

Mango Split, by me: (Serves 2)

1 fresh mango
4 scoops vanilla ice cream (my favorite is the Low-Fat Treat Vanilla)
1 basket fresh raspberries
Handful of fresh strawberries
Mint for garnish (not photographed)

Halve the mango along the pit. Porcupine it carefully, making sure not to puncture the skin. Shave the porcupine; waste not, want not, give that porcupine the Brazilian treatment! Slice the strawberries thinly. Put 2 scoops of ice cream in each empty half of the mango skin, generously dress the ice cream in mango cubes, raspberries, and garnish with sliced strawberries and a mint leaf.

Enjoy!

Tour de Fleece 2010: Day 3

That's right, teammates! It's Day 3 of the Tour de Fleece and I am making *tracks* on my goal of spinning up 16 oz of Susan's Spinning Bunny BFL (in "Jeans") and 8 oz of Lorna's Laces mystery roving (same color name, I think) to be plied together and cast on to be a Garter Yoke Cardigan *before* July 25th.

Ambitious? Perhaps. But what fun is it to set a goal that is *easily* achieved? For me, if it's not a real challenge, it's just not fun. Fortunately, the launch of the Tour de Fleece lined up with a long weekend, giving me the chance to earn my Yellow Jersey for Team Sasquatch.

While we were working out breakfast on Sunday, Andrew and I were listening to "Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!", and it turns out that the 35th anniversary of JAWS was a couple of weeks ago. (They also did a game where the caller had to pick the real movie out of a list of titles, which I aced and was incredibly proud of. Andrew, on the other hand, sighed with what *sounded* like disappointment at the fact that I've seen every bad creature feature involving sharks, dinosaurs, snakes and combinations of all three.)

While I do have a special place in my heart for sharks and all things JAWS (along with a funny childhood story, which I'll tell later), I thought the Tour de Fleece would be a *great* time for a JAWS marathon- especially since all of the movies were available on Netflix Instant Watch.

I called BFF Erin and she was up for it, and we spun, and watched JAWS, and spun, and watched JAWS 2, and spun, and watched JAWS 3, and spun and watched JAWS: The Revenge. By the end of Day 3, I ended up with 8 ounces of my wool spun:

Did you hear something?

OH NO, BEHIND YOU!!!!

Ahem, sorry. Habit.

Watching JAWS really took me back in time- and I was surprised at how graphic some of the scenes are on a large, HD television. (For your reference, my first JAWS experience was on a TV screen that is smaller than my 15" laptop.) I also found the clothes and hair endlessly entertaining, and the fact that from movie to movie there was *no* plot continuity for the characters.

This doesn't surprise me, since Peter Benchley only wrote JAWS (which is a phenomenal read, by the way) and they treated the characters the same way the writers of First Knight treated the whole King Arthur legend in their "adaptation". (FYI, in the JAWS 2 through The Revenge novels, the shark is a self-aware character who *really is* hunting the Brody clan. Yes, I read them; No, you don't need to.) They even say, during the credits of one of the films that the characters are only loosely based on Benchley's.

However, I didn't let a little thing like character inconsistency or the shark in JAWS: The Revenge GROWLING when it got shocked get in the way of my intense enjoyment. Instead, I spun away and asked questions like "If the shark bites through an electrical main line, and it sinks into the water, how long would it take before folks could get in the water?" and "How far would the water be charged?" and finally, "Where is a physicist when I need one?!"

What I thought was most interesting is that JAWS hasn't been remade. They've remade many of the classics, and I am genuinely surprised that JAWS hasn't yet. So, from our couch, we re-cast JAWS. For your enjoyment:

JAWS 2010 (directed by Yours Truly):

Chief Brody: Patrick Wilson
Matt Hooper: Ryan Reynolds
Quint: Hugh Laurie

This casting (which Andrew asserted was all about the abs), led to a few sillier casting decisions:

JAWS 2010, a la Star Trek (directed by Yours Truly):
Chief Brody: Chris Pine
Matt Hooper: Zachary Quinto
Quint: Bruce Greenwood

JAWS 2010, a la Supernatural (directed by Yours Truly):
Chief Brody: Jensen Ackles
Matt Hooper: Jared Padalecki
Quint: Jim Beaver

...and finally, JAWS 2010, a la Muppets (directed by Yours Truly):
Chief Brody: Kermit the Frog
Matt Hooper: Gonzo the Great
Quint: Rowlf the Dog

(Andrew wanted to cast Animal as Quint, which I declared was stupid, and then *may* have said, "Andrew, I am trying to cast this seriously", to which everyone dissolved into hysterical laughter. Also, wouldn't a muppet shark be ADORABLE?)

Bon chance, teammates. Remember, it is clearly *never* safe to go back in the water...

Why yes, Virginia, there IS knitting!

While the knitting that has captured my heart (the Tangled Yoke Cardigan) has evaded photographic evidence, I've started a pair of Rick Socks:

Ok, these are the humble beginnings, but I've made a few adjustments (shocking, I know), and I'm digging on all the twisted stitches and swirlyness of the pattern. Alas, four pattern repeats in, I found myself drawn back to my Tangled Yoke cardigan.

Part of it is the pattern itself; it's written clearly, and I especially appreciated the caveat about the cable chart- where Eunny assures the intrepid, suspicious, frequently-attacked by her knitting- knitter that, yes, the stitch count will change. Go with it.

So, with Eunny's assurances, I leapt in with both feet. (Without a lifeline, which I realized may have been prudent AFTER I had done the set up row. Eunny, I'm depending on you. Don't let me down.) Row 1 worked out, after I kicked myself for omitting one knit stitch per repeat (my fault, not Eunny's), so I'm feeling optimistic about rows 3-18.

I'm making liberal use of my stitch markers, color-coding to my heart's content, and using six of my ten colored highlighters to differentiate the different cables:

I'm not often a monogamous knitter, but I'll say it again, not only am I enjoying knitting this, but I'm super-excited about wearing it. I have a set of glass buttons, whose vintage is purported to be the 1800's. (No pics of them now, but they are PERFECT.) Andrew has declared this to be my Rhinebeck sweater, but at the rate I'm going, I might have time to knit TWO.

(As I typed that, I almost fell off of my chair laughing. Time to stop huffing wool and get on with my day.)

Stage 13 - Tour de Fleece

Team Spinmore, stage 13.

As your fearless Yellow Jersey spinner, I feel it is only fair to give an update. (You know, since radios were banned. The ban has been lifted, as of yesterday. That's what I'm blaming the blog silence on. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.) Can you hear me now?

So, my progress: I have finished Leg 1 and Leg 2 of my Tour de Fleece goals. The Mango has been plied and skeined, the Albatross has been plied and is waiting for Andrew to skein it. (His socks, he skeins. Totally fair.)

But, I have wandered off of the path, taken a side route, if you will, had a picnic under a tree, took a nap, smelled some roses, and am slowly wandering back towards the race. Lance Armstrong, I am not.

Part of my diversion from the challenge - which I planned into my goals, by the way - is that I am spinning some STUNNING tussah silk from A Verb for Keeping Warm (in Vermillion II). I am spinning it fine, and if yardage yields, it will grow up to be an Aeolian.

I know that I have limited time to meet my goal, but by pacing myself, I know I'll finish and not burn out, pull a hamstring, or cause a peloton pileup. Of spinners. Metaphorically speaking.

Until then, spinners, back to our wheels! Remember, safety first- take regular stretch breaks, ice if necessary, and most of all, stay hydrated.

Holy sock, Batman!

That's right. I can officially say that I have worn through the heel of a handknit sock. Proof:

I knit these in 2002 out of Silja sock yarn that I bought at the Yarn Place. (Someone, please tell me why I can remember that, but not what I ate for lunch yesterday? It's a puzzlement.) Seven years and a million washes later, we have a spectacular, spontaneous hole.

Tour de Fleece is going swimmingly- I have plied both the Mango Merino/Silk from Redfish Dyeworks and the Crown Mountain Superwash Merino (in Albatross) for Andrew. Of course there aren't pictures. Evidently, I can post cell-phone pictures of holy socks, but my Beloved Handspun(tm) requires a photo shoot. Puzzlement, part 2.

I am knitting like a MADWOMAN on my Adamas shawl. I'm hoping to finish it in the next couple of weeks so that I can do a huge blocking session out on the patio. I have not one, but three, shawls that need blocking. How is it that after a hundred hours of knitting something, blocking is what keeps it in the UFO bin? Puzzlement, part 3.

In regards to the Lace Gauntlet Throwdown (because nobody loves a challenge like I do), I have been slowly working through combing the Baby Cormo locks, and I think I'm going to bribe No-Blog-Rachel with wine (or mojitos) to come over with her Patrick Greene drumcarder so I can drumcard Frank and Luther. There is just NO way I'm combing all that.

(For your reference, it's taking me approximately one million years per ounce to comb - poorly - the beautiful locks. Sorry, Meghan, there is a real reason why I love Shari.)

I've sustained some minor battle damage, but I think Andrew might just dig fiber related scars.

"See this one? Combing baby cormo." Hm. Doesn't quite have that "tough guy" ring to it. (Considering I told a few people that I tore my chest muscles in a bar fight - because coughing hard enough to cause that damage just sounded sissified - I'm not above a creative story.)

...with liberty and libations for all!

Today kicked off the Tour de Fleece. After careful consideration, and much debate, I found my goal. I'm going to ply up all the projects that have been sitting, resting indefinitely, which include:

- 25 oz of Tallulah, to be knit into a Mariah:

- 4 oz of Redfish Dyeworks 80% merino/ 20% tussah silk, in the Mango colorway, spun for lace knitting.

- 4 oz of Crown Mountain Superwash merino in "Albatross". Spun for socks for Andrew. (Side note: Crown Mountain had a sale last week, and I totally resisted the urge to purchase.)

But alas, as the race kicked off, guess who got a flat tire? Yours truly. I start plying up the mango colored laceweight, and my Woolee Winder refuses to draw in. So I oil everything (because that's the first step in fixing any spinning issue. Yes, the bobbin is new, so it needs to be broken in. But alas, my Woolee Winder needs to be cleaned and tightened. My pit crew (Andrew) has been informed.

Lest you think I spun alone today, I was joined by some of my closest friends, and their families. What started as a casual day of sitting around, watching movies and spinning turned into a full-out pot-luck style barbeque. I haven't had this much fun on a Fourth of July in ages!

When we served dinner, we packed a dozen people into our living room, tossed in 1776 - which might be the best movie EVER, second only to Xanadu - and watched William Daniels declare independency for the United States. Sure, it was a tight fit, but we still had a great time.

So, I close with some self-evident truths:

- Where there is a fire pit and s'more components, fun will be had.
- Getting into a hammock can be a challenge, but well worth it.
- Friends come to party, real friends help with the cleanup. Mine are the best!