A Fiberful Weekend

for Deb:

My calendar is by Sabra Field, a Vermont artist whose work graces the walls of other parts of our home, as well.  She is a woodcut artist.  I am particularly drawn to her Vermont barn and landscape pieces.  This one is called Autumn Sunset, and the original print was done in 1988.

I love having this calendar in my home office, as I find her work peaceful and restful and I never tire of it. 

Second, a rare occurrence:  I had a quiet, restful and restorative -- and very fiberlicious -- weekend.  Saturday was spent spinning almost the entire day, complemented with some dyeing and some knitting.  I am almost finished the "small intestine" scarf -- so-called because someone in the room I was hanging out in on the Friday night at the hotel in Poughkeepsie/Rhinebeck asked, "Norma, what are you knitting?!"  Someone else quipped, "A small intestine."  Honestly, I'd had a bit of wine (I bet you're surprised), and I cannot remember exactly who said it, so I won't make any allegations that I cannot swear to.  It was hilarious, regardless, and maybe not too far from the truth.  I love the yarn (the silk/wool blend Brooks Farm limited edition stuff I bought in Maryland in May) and I think I like the scarf, but I'm not sure it's the best use of that yarn.  I'll have to decide later, once it's finished and blocked.  Now I know you'll be on the edge of your seat to see the Small Intestine Scarf.  Soon.

I started the 2nd Green Mountain Mohair mitten, which, as you can clearly see, is going to be a fraternal, not identical, twin:

Hell, it's not even a twin.  More of a step half-sibling. Same mother, different father. But I think I'm going to love it.

Meanwhile, I set up the spinning wheel in the family room and David and I watched a couple of movies -- "Thank You For Smoking" and "Prairie Home Companion" -- both of which I liked (the screenplay and the acting in "Companion" were phenomenal) and both of which were great for spinning and plying and knitting. I spun and plied at least 300 yards (plied yardage) of CVM and merino. 

When I got sick of spinning and plying, I knitted a bit, and when I got sick of knitting, I washed and set the twist in the newly-spun yarns and dyed another skein. 

I started and ripped out and restarted at least three times the next scarf for the RSP07 (someone in an email or in the comments referred to the Red Scarf Project '07 in that shorthand and I love it).  I think I've settled on this.  I alternate loving it and being not-so-sure about it (too Gryffindor? too yacht club? too loud for a college kid who might not like to draw attention to him/herself? or is it just right?) but I'm going to stay with it, I think.  This is my first multi-directional scarf, and it is a wicked lot o' fun.  I was not feeling the love for the gold Backyard Leaves scarf I had started in the gold Aurora Karabella 8 I'm using here.  I love the way it looks with the maroonish-colored Lion Fishermen's Wool I dyed, so I ripped out the Backyard Leaves.  I still want to make Backyard Leaves, but I feel it deserves to be knit in a better yarn.

The red looks quite like raspberry in this photo, but in reality it's a very nice maroon with a russet tinge to it.  Let's hope this goes to a student at one of the several schools for which these are the right colors.

Comments

[Kristen]

Oh that print is lovely! I'm glad to hear that you had a restful weekend (especially so close to election day). Looking forward to pics of the intestine.

[Debi]

Thanx for the compliments on my new tank :)

I love your mismatched mitts and the scarf is really pretty!

I can totally top your WTF moment...when comments are posted to my blog, Blogger sends a copy to my mailbox with a link to the actual comment. Today I got an email and clicked on the link, thinking it would take me to my current post. Instead it took me to my archived and sidebar link on the Turkish Cast-On, someone was kindly thanking me for posting the tute.Right above that comment was, "How can I find your Turkish Cast-On tutorial?" -- posted as a comment to my Turkish Cast-On tutorial, I kid you not!! UBER WTF!!!! :)

[Isela]

I *love* that scarf, it is different and that calls me to it :).

Glad you were able to relax for a wee bit :) and get some fun time.

[Vicki]

What a great scarf -- and a terrific weekend!! I LOVED "Prairie Home Companion"!

[Carole]

I watched movies and knit this weekend, too. With a litte spinning thrown in for variety. It was quite relaxing. And now, alas, it's Monday morning. Ugh.

[pippi]

small intestine, lol!

i've been wanting to see both of those moives; but haven't got around to getting them yet.
glad to hear they were good spinning movies!
(there should be a movie rewiew site based sloely on movies mixed with fiber arts!
ie: "terrible movie, but good for knitting, as you can use your work to cover your eyes so they don't bleed" and you know, the converse too... "this movie was so good i dropped 3 stitches!")

anywhoooo, if you are interested, i'm going to be guest speaker at a local-ish spinning guild sometime in december. i'd love it if you could ventured down.

[Anne]

I love her work as well. I am particularly fond of the winter landscapes with cows and barns by moonlight.

[Kathy]

I think the scarf looks great in those colors and as a multi-directional scarf.

[margene]

The scarf looks fun and a kid somewhere will love it. It's great to hear you had some relaxing time and that David did too!!

[Birdsong]

Glad you had such a lovely, fiberful weekend. The modular scarf is looking like lots of fun.

[Elizabeth D]

Hey, maybe the scarf will go to Hogwarts and Harry Potter himself will get it!!

[--Deb]

Thank you, Norma! That's a LOVELY picture.

[Lucia]

Small intestine? Was there a doctor in the house?

I think I've come up with a pattern for my first RS. (You know how I am about patterns.) You inspired me to push my personal envelope, for which I am grateful.

[aubree]

Go Gophers! Those are perfect U of MN colors. I also had to laugh, we had the exact same Netflix movie night last week at our house, except we got through maybe 10 minutes of Prairie Home Companion. Oh well, to each their own. :-)

[minnie]

the mittens are great, the scarf is delish, and i'm jealous! like i get that much time to spin! and i did email panera, so cross your fingers

[Cookie]

They all want attention at that age. Whoever gets it, will love it.

[Carrie]

love the scarf. It's just right.

[Imbrium]

Let me see if I have this right...you're knitting a scarf that someone mistook for a small intestine...and you're continuing to knit it? And I thought I had peculiar tastes. ;)

[Elisabeth]

I like the multi-directional red and yellow scarf. And it would be good for a wallflower to experience a little color in his/her life, so I say keep going!

Step-sibling mittens are awesome. Who wants two of the same mittten anyway?

[kmkat]

Thanks for reminding me about the PHC movie -- I just requested it from the library. Here in WI it is of course very popular; I am 121 in line for one of the 17 copies. Oh well, it will be a surprise when it comes in. I've been listening to the Saturday radio show since 1975, when it was only a year old. Did you know GK had a drive-time show called The Prairie Home Morning Show in the '70s on Minnesota Public Radio? It was just him and Jim Ed Poole and all the pseudo-sponsors. The music mix was eclectic, to say the least: bluegrass and classical and Broadway and what-have-you, plus at least once a week he'd play the Beach Boys' "Barbara Ann" in honor of Barbara Ann Bunsen, a Lake Woebegon character he used to have on the Saturday show.

Love the multi-directional scarf!

[claudia]

Indeed, that scarf was intestine-y.

[Carrie]

Hey Norma, if you're still in contact with Martin Davies, please pass along my congratulations. I finished his book over the weekend and really enjoyed it.
Also, the scarf is lovely, but if you really want to help the orphans, stop knitting in ASU colors and convince them to go to the University of Arizona. It's the best thing, really.
:-)

[sandy]

Love your mittens! And scarf! And calendar.

[Laura]

Did anyone point out that it would be "half-sibling" not "step-sibling" if the mittens have the same mother? :)

[kelli ann]

i think we may have been watching 'Companion' at the very same time. Wasn't Meryl great? and you'd think GK had been acting in Altman films for years. Gosh, i loved it. (and we watched 'thank you for smoking' 2 weeks ago, too. but my days of watching 2 movies in one evening are so over. perhaps they'll come back? that aaron eckhart is illegaly handsome, imho.)