Uli's Creative Corner

I will now jump to day 1 of our summer vacation but before I do, I should show you a wonderful family picture that my good university friend Cathy took of us at as a family at the Atlantis waterslides in Vernon.

We had a lot of fun that day even with JR's lack of any sort of fear in water.  He's a danger to himself!!!! 

Now back to fibre tourism and day one of our journey.  Going in backwards order, stop #2 was Twist Of Fate Yarns in Kamloops.  Erynn just recently opened a little store front on the bottom floor of her lovely home and it's great.  Yarn and fibre abound and I did a nice bit of shopping.  Also at her store, you can find some of my shawl pins, bookmarks and cell phone charms.  Whether from out of town or in town, her shop is easy to find from the highway and it's worth while if you're looking for some unique hand dyed yarns and fibres.  I had fun.  Here's a mosaic of all the goodies that came home with me.

I don't remember, off hand, everything but they are listed in my ravelry stash pages.  If I remember correctly, the two in the top row are both wonderfully squishy superwash wool.  I can't wait to spin up the red on the right.  I think it was called pommegranate passion.  The middle row are two bags filled with lovely merino.  I think the bottom left is also a merino.  The yarn on the right (the only yarn I bought all trip) is this awesome hand dyed bamboo in wonderful watery type shades.  It's a lace weight.  I am not sure of the yardage but it will become something pretty at some point down the road.

My next blog post will feature my last fibre stop - or the first fibre stop on our journey.

In the meanwhile, I'll leave you with a picture of some pretty earrings that I made for the shop the other day:

They are made from a stone called Lepidolite Jasper and adorned with swarovski crystals and topped off with sterling silver ear wires.  Pop on over to the shop once in a while.  I don't show everything new off on the blog here.  I often forget!!!  Getting older, you know.

Until later............. 

Before I step back in time to talk about other fibery loveliness that came home with me on my trip, I'd like to show you what I just finished:

Here are my finished Spyrogira fingerless mittens from my very own handspun.  Can you say "Uli is excited"?

Next on the needles using handspun will be those socks out of the handspun I showed off yesterday.  I think I might cast on tonight.  I'm spinning some stuff right now that's not going so well.  It just feels like the fibre, a BFL, has experienced a bit (quite a bit) of felting somewhere along the process and the pre-drafting was even hard.  It's all very compressed with lots of really tough sections.  I will use the resulting singles to practice some navajo plying.

Now back to fibre shopping on vacation.................. aka fibre tourism (I love that expression)

My last fiber stop in the Okanagan was a stup with Sharon from Homespun Haven in Armstrong.  Sharon was kind enough to open her home based shop/studio to us after dinner on a Sunday evening.  I was so pleased with her kindness.  She has a lot of goodies in that "above the carport" little shop of hers.  I'm thinking I bought more but I must not have all the pics uploaded but in my stash there is some Bamboo fibre in the bright turquoise as well as Merino/Tussah Silk, Corriedale and some Merino.  There I also got an Ashford Niddy Noddy that will give me 2 yard and 1 yard skeins.  The 2 yard skeins are coming in helpful.

And last, but not least, I would love to show you two new listings I put up in my shop this morning.  They are both key chains but one is a new style for me.

Off I go.  Next on my fibre journey will be my report on Twist of Fate in Kamloops.

Today marks the end of my vacation.  Back to work I go.............  I wish I was still at home.  I have so many lovely new fibery things at home and there is so much organization and tidying left to do that I'm not quite happy with being back into the "real life" routine quite yet.

Over the next little while, I'll be blogging about all my fiber related explorations while on our trip to the interior of BC and anything else fibery and knitting related that happened in the last few weeks.  I figure I might as well work my way backwards and start at the end of the vacation.

Last week, once we got home from our road trip, I had the absolute pleasure to go on a yarn crawl with Brenda from Close to my Heart.  We started out in Langley/Surrey and headed into Vancouver.

Our stops included Knitopia in Langly, 88 Sttiches in Walnut Grove, our house for a quick visit to see all of my vacation stash enhancement, Birkeland Brothers on Main in Vancouver, Three Bags Full also on Main and Maiwa Supply on Granville Island.  We also stopped for a yummy lunch at Solly's Bagels just off Main Street and some other take-home goodies. 

I think I was pretty good!!!  At Knitopia, I fell in love with these two wonderfully hand dyed rovings - a 50/50 blend of merino and tencel.  I didn't start spinning them yet but they won't be in my stash long.  I just love the subtleness of the colours.  Yet, the colours are beautifully saturated.  I think they will make some lovely goodness.

Given that I wasn't going to spend much money at all, I stayed self controlled at 88 Stitches and just looked at all the loveliness.  I also kept my wallet in my purse at Birkeland Brothers.

At Three Bags Full we met up with Sivia Harding.  It's always such a pleasure to see Sivia.  I was also excited to meet the owner of the store who was excitedly waiting for her own Ladybug to arrive.  I was tempted by some lovely Yummy Yarn rovings but I resisted because I can get her stuff if I go to the Coquitlam Farmer's market and I might just have to stop by there again before it finishes at the end of the season.  Reminder to self.............. go check her dates at the market.  I did pick up this wonderful skein of Dream in Color Smooshy in the Lava Lipstick shade.  Another skein of almost solid but very lovely colour shadings.

I also picked up a WPI tool.  No shopping at Maiwa either although I did pick up and put down several shades of pencil rovings from Skacel.

JR is my cool dude of summer:

I'll end it here with one last picture of my final Tour de Fleece spinning project.  My goal was to come close to a 2-ply fingering weight using a superwash merino.  Here is my skein:

Although it's not quite fingering weight.  On my WPI tool it's 18 WPI and the little card that came with it put that just into the sport weight category.  So.... I'm close.  I'm calling it a successful Tour de Fleece.  This skein, with one or two exceptions is a very evenly spun skein and I will actually cast on and knit a pair of socks with it since the goal was to generate a skein of sock yarn.  I have 354 (or thereabouts) yards and I think I've got enough.

I could show you finished socks and more stash but I'm going to cut it off here now.  Tomorrow is another day for more blogging!!!

We're home................ and I'm just giving you a small preview of all the fibery goodness I'll be chatting on about in the next little while.  Here is a picture in our last hotel room of how my stash grew while we were on our little road trip.

No longer does it all fit to the one rubbermaid tote I limited my stash to a little while ago.  It has now expanded to two, very full tubs.  They are overflowing with the new goodies, as well as all the things that arrived in the mail while I was gone and the bit of stash that I added when Brenda and I went on our yarn crawl yesterday.  So, stay tuned.......... my Bugsy will be getting a serious workout....

Coming to your from Sun Peaks........... vacation day 1 was a great success.  I haven't taken any pictures yet but it was a  nice day.

We set out about 8:30 in the morning, did the traditional stop at Timmies for an XL Double Double and a 20 pack of timbits and off we went. 

Our first stop was at Aurelia Wool & Weaving.  It's off the beaten path and out in the country and the kids had a blast meeting some chickens and the rooster and JR especially loved the loud coccadoodledoos from the rooster.  Little Miss got to bring in a still warm egg from the nest.  That was their first highlight of the trip.  My highlight, of course, was the absolutely beautiful fibre and when you see all the pics (if I ever take a pic of it all) you will have to agree with me.  I bought Corriedale and Merino and the most gorgeous Merino Silk/Blends.  I also got a couple of her top knots in fun blends of colours.  I left there with a BIG bag.

We moved on into Merritt where we had lunch at the McDonalds.  Then we drove on to Kamloops to check out the new Twist of Fate store.  Erynn has done a lovely job and I had a fun time there, too.  I bought one skein of lace weight - a hand dyed bamboo in watery shades of blue and lime.  The rest was all fibre.  Another big bag followed us into the car.

Then we headed up to Sun Peaks.  I really love the European flair up there.  Of course, the place we're staying, Sun Peaks Lodge, is owned by Germans so I get to practice the language a bit, too.

We met all of Evan's cousins and family etc. and Little Miss had a blast with her 2nd cousins.  There were 24 of us who attempted to go to the same restaurant, many of the kids........ it was crazy.  There are 2 other girls who are Little Miss' age and she was having a blast getting to know them.

Today, the sun is shining and there's a craft show and a quilt show in the village.  The kdis can't wait to get to the pool.  This afternoon is great-grandmas birthday party.

We're having a good time!!!

It's the little things that count in life, right?  So I have several people looking at me very strangely when I am excited and jumping with joy about the fact that I'm actually knitting with my handspun.  But what's so wrong with that?  I'm just excitable....

On Sunday I wound the skein of Tulip Coriedale (see previous post) into a centre pull ball to start Spirogyra.  This is a beautifully simple pattern, knits up quickly and my handspun looks great with it (or at least I think so).  I haven't picked it up since I put it down on Sunday but that's because I've been spinning.  So, here is my progress so far:

My Tour de Fleece progress report is that I've been spinning every day (no surprise there - to the exclusion of all my other things - I didn't even get a magazine submission done in time that I had planned on).    My goal is to get close to fingering weight.  Here's the first finished yarn I've spun up in this little challenge:

I'm getting closer............ and I'm definitely getting more even and consistent in my spinning and thickness.  I love the colours in this.  The roving was a superwash wool that was very soft.  It was a bit slippery to spin but I got used to it pretty quickly.  The colours of course are so "ME".  I bought this at the Victoria Fibre Fest from Twist of Fate.

Right now, I'm spinning this lovely Corriedale:

It's lovely and working up so beautifully.  I may be able to start plying it tonight.  I still have a little bit left to spin on the second bobbin.  It all depends on how the vet visit goes for the kitties.  Hubby and Little Miss are taking them to the vet for their shots tonight.  I'm staying home with JR - aka, I might not get much of anything done until the other two get back home.

I'm off work after tomorrow for a 2-week vacation.  We're only gone for about 5 days of those 2 weeks and I'm planning various fibre related stops along the way.  I'll make sure to share all stories of any fibre related pursuits once we're back.

Off I go.......... I'm sure I'll be back before vacation to show a few new bits for my stash and maybe some progress on any of my knitting projects.

I have no pictures or anything - Oh, I do have one................ but I just wanted to squeal in delight that I'm knitting Spirogyra fingerless gloves from my own handspun - my first ever knit with handspun.  I'm so delighted.  They are a quick knit.  I'm 75% done with the first glove and I didn't cast on until late yesterday afternoon.  The yarn I'm spinning is a Corriedale in a colourway called Tulips.  Here is a picture of the spun skein:

I'm so happy.  I'll get pictures tonight.  Yesterday hubby was doing stuff for work on our desktop - he was connected to his office computer running this one pesky script from about 2:30 until about 11 pm when it finally finished.  I hope that it helped him get ahead.  I'm not complaining because he is under lots of timeline pressure but I was a bit frustrated when we had to disconnect the laptop from the network so it wouldn't use bandwidth.  Ah will, what's a bit of internet withdrawl.  I probably got more knitting done that way!!!

I also finished spinning and plying this superwash wool - it's hanging to dry and I'm loving it.  Here is half of it on one bobbin:

These are SOOOO my colours.

I had no idea it would be so satisfying to knit with my own handspun and I'm happily excited.

I just listed a little fishie bookmark in my shop:

and I'm going to list these stitch markers in  a little while:

Have a great Monday!!!!

I love to join............ but I often can't keep up with things..... my appetite seems to regularly be bigger than what I can chew...

So here are my summer "join-ins"................

I got confused by two different "Tour de Fleece's" so I think I'm in both and that's fine with me.  Being such a rookie spinner, I need all the help I can get.  My challenge is to work on the superwash merino rovings that I have and to practice so that I can come closer and closer to my goal of producing fingering weight yarns for socks.  We'll see how that goes but it's definitely something to challenge myself:

Then, there's the Summer of Socks:

My first pair of SOS socks are a basic pair of socks made from Opal Elements in a lovely colour way.  I call them my Indie socks because the entire leg (except for the ribbing) was knit while taking hubby out for his Father's Day gift (a little late) to see Indiana Jones in the theatre.

I wasn't so keen on the yarn on the ball but I love them as they are knitting up.  Quite nice colours.  My main take along socks for our little vacation will be mainly socks.

Then there is Seasons of Lace.............. my goal for that is to finish Norwegian Woods and to start one other smaller lace project like a scarf:

And then, last but not least there is the Summer KAL-CAL where the focus is purses and/or socks.  Well, I always am doing socks and I have two purse/bag projects waiting in my stash that really want to become a reality.  I'm also going to throw a few prizes from my shop into that KAL-CAL fro some of the prize draws.  I'm also sponsoring the Summer of Socks with 3 small prizes for some fun prize draws.

So yes, I might be a little over committed but I also can use the inspiration of seeing everyone else rally around similar projects during the dog days of summer.

The kids want to say HI:

And I have been a busy little beaver with updates to my shop. Here's a little preview of some of the things I have added - with a few more that aren't listed yet.

I feel good................... my blogging MoJo is back........ mind you, I am very tired.  I've had 2 nights of very disrupted sleep - one night due to Canada Day fireworks and last night due to repeated rounds of rolling thunder and ligtning.

So do you think it has come to this already?  A few weeks into my fibre acquisition period and I already need to take a fibre buying break?

Here is a little mosaic of the lovelies I ended up with at the Farmer's Market where I once again spent some time at Yummy Yarn's tent.

There is a selection of Blue Faced Leicester, Corriedale and Fin Roving in there.  The bottom is a peek of some of her "Hurt Me" colourway BFL roving as I spun it up on my spindle.  So do you think enough is enough already?  I'm having a tough time resisting...... Fibre spins up faster than it knits.

Here's how the plied "Hurt Me" turned out:

The plying is a bit uneven in spots and there are still some thick and think patches but overall, I'm giving myself a pat on the back.  I'm very pleased with only my second roving spun into yarn on a spinning wheel.

The kids are enjoying the summer weather!!!!

JR is a maniac when it comes to water and pool.  He's like a fish in the sea.......... loves it, loves it, loves it.  The fact that he has no fear, however, makes us worry because we have to be so ultra-careful with him, especially at the big swimming pool.

I'm listing new stuff in my Etsy shop this week os come over and take a peek.  I'm still having a 10% off sale - that runs until midnight on July 5th.