Minot Knitting!

YarnStash_June202009 001
Originally uploaded by fiberbrarian

Another great visit to the Bagel Shop and YarnStash. We spent time winding down sock yarn into little balls to share for the Sock Blanket.

Beautiful drive over here! Met a birder from St. Paul - he suggested that I actually STOP to look at the birds rather than drive past at 70mph...or at least slow down to 50! LOL

More later when I get home. Time to get the yarn swap moving!

Group picture. TdF 2009

Group picture. TdF 2009
Originally uploaded by fiberbrarian

Tour de Fleece 2009 is gearing up. The North Border Spinners is a group formed of spinners along the Canadian-US border.

My stash is about 20# (!) if I got the ounces/grams added correctly. Here's a list of what I have:

Yarn Stash/Minot, ND (YarnFloozie)

• 8oz br BFL top Frabjous Fibers #10 Moulin Rouge
• 8oz braid BFL top Frabjous Fibers Cottage Garden
• 4 oz Merino silk 80/20 Lichen Louet
• 1.5# Fine Brown Shetland Louet
• .5# Fine White Shetland Louet
• 1.5# Blue Face Leicester Louet (white)
• 1# Wensleydale Top Louet (white)
• .5# South African top Louet (white)
• .5# light grey swalesdale Louet
• .5# angora lambswool 50/50 Louet

From Hillcreek Fiber Studio/Columbia, MO (no rav)

• 1 oz French angora (clipped) “Giant”
• 8 oz Cotton Sliver “Coyote” New World Textiles
• 4 oz Cotton “PaloVerde Green” NWT
• 8oz Carolina Cottolin (70% cotton/30% flax) NWT
• 2.5 lb NZ corriedale roving light grey
• 2# 3oz NZ corriedale? carded sliver - natural white
• 2# NZ corriedale roving natural med grey

from Hillcreek Yarn Shoppe/Columbia, MO IdleKnit

• BIG BAG (?5#?) romney? corriedale? “Rambo” med grey.

I CAN'T FIND THE REMOTE CONTROL!

I can't find the remote control and it's going to make me nuts. What did we do before? Did we really GET UP and turn the volume up and down for commercials? Or did we suffer through the volume BLARE when they're on, just waiting for the TV show to come back and the volume return to a bearable level?

It's bad form, I know, but I do often write with the TV quietly on in the background. I'm sitting perched in the living room, laptop on my article/file crate that's on a stepstool. (Not as precarious as it sounds.) I turned Weather Channel down long ago so I could concentrate on something (someone has written my dissertation AGAIN - not really but it took me a while to calm down) but now I want to switch to CNN because the ship captain has been retrieved alive (I heard on a CNN email alert) but I'll have to go over and change the channel and then it'll be up and down volume over and over and over.

WHERE'S THE REMOTE?????

In the meantime, here's a picture of my work desk (where I am not at this moment):



(Found it. Had dropped down into the crate of folders/articles. Peace reigns at last.)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

handspun BFL - mitss and scarf and leftover
Originally uploaded by fiberbrarian

Here's a photo of my latest project - hat and mitts from homespun and commercial yarns. Since there's yarn left? A matching hat is on its way!

Full Moon Flooding

Okay. It's not a real picture, but this is pretty close to what the moon looked like Wednesday night after the blizzard. Maybe some 'moon dogs' (reddish/yellowish crystals encircling the moon) and a stark white landscape. But this is pretty much what it looked like then. And almost like this when I drove in this morning before the sun came up. I'm not playing Pollyanna's Glad Game - the crystal clear nights are worth the cold. (Most of the time.)

We are definitely getting signs of Spring up here. Flood forecasts are out. It's not just me; flooding is in the news more this year than last. Fargo is going to get creamed. Because the Red River (of the North) flows north, we'll get the Fargo water, but our river channel is wider here so we can take more water (so I've read). The prediction is more than 70% that we'll get a major flood, which will likely close two of the three car bridges to/from East Grand Forks. The railroad bridge will get flooded, too. But the flood wall and dikes are supposed to take us to the 50+ feet marker.

I looked around my place this morning and decided: anything that gets left behind will be thrown out if we get flooded. I can't deal with sewage and mold and the various other offal things that wander in with flood water. So now is the time to figure out what's important and what isn't. I guess preparing for floods is the ultimate spring cleaning!

EZ surprise jacket

EZ surprise jacket
Originally uploaded by fiberbrarian

Finished! Paton's Kroy sock yarn. LUV the color of the variegated. Found it by chance at Michaels after reading that they now carried sock yarn. Went back to buy more...gone. Clerk not really clear on if they would be getting more. With the economy as it is, I guess I should be happy that they're still here.

Still. It's beautiful.

Close call!

handspun Romney shawl
Originally uploaded by fiberbrarian

My (almost) worst nightmare happened last night: My car got unplugged.

I'm sure there was no malice - someone must have tripped over the cord as they walked by. (All the cars are plugged in with cords that cross the sidewalk and plug into the building. Not great design.)

The car definitely was not sure that it wanted to start but just at the point where I had to decide to continue turning the key - and taking the chance of totally killing the battery - or stopping, the car turned over and started. WHEW! The temps won't get high today, so I'll be out starting and warming it up.

Last night I finally got pictures taken of things I will send out via Macuwita Sni. The handspun Romney shawl is the big item. Roving from The Fold and the wonderful Toni Neil. Great person - super teacher - excellent vendor.

This cold spell has been hard on more than cars. The bunny pictured earlier has been around. He's not crazy about the 'wild life' food I bought for him. I saw a peanut shell, neatly opened. The raw uneaten peanut sitting there. Even its red covering had been removed. All carefully left behind. Uneaten. And s/he doesn't like corn either. I'll get some bird seed. That seemed to get eaten. By something.

The squirrels have built tunnels in the snow. I discovered that when I put some seed out under a tree - heard a squeek and saw a flash that disappeared. Eventually tracked it to a snow burrow. Pretty smart use of the environment! There's not going to be much thawing until April.

Wow. That is a depressing thought. I notice that I'm knitting with bright colors now. Must be a reaction to all this white! Luv the Romney shawl, but I admit I wanted to throw it in a dye pot and give it some zip!