Strings and Yarn

You are planning a wedding and building a career.  I’ve had quite the crazy last few months including opening up my own violin studio/school in downtown Eugene.

The Eugene Suzuki Music Academy opened up in January and has been going strong.  My students have been liking the move, and I’ve gotten several new students as well.  Right now it’s just me teaching there, but I’m hoping to expand within the first 3 years.  It’s been great to have my own space, handle the business end of teaching, and having control over my own schedule again.  You can find more pictures of my studio here.

Of course I’ve also been busy spinning and knitting.  I’ve started my wedding shawl, and am about halfway through the knitting.  I have about 1200 yards of yarn, and I think I’ll be needing to spin a little more.

The yarn is 50/50 merino silk.  It was a lot of fun to spin, except for the silk wanting to get everywhere.  I found little bunched up bits of fiber all over for quite awhile after I was done spinning.  I ordered some more fiber, so I can spin up some more, but I’m hoping I don’t need to much.  What I really want to do is dye my left over fiber for another fun project!

Knitting white is pretty scary.  This is not a travel project!  It stays at home, as far away from coffee, wine, and animals as possible.

Now, I’m not going to say I’m back to blogging, and I’m not going to set any number of posts per month.  I do feel like things are settling a little right now, but you never know when things are going to pick up again.  I do know I have tons of blog fodder, I need this space to be here when I’m ready to post more regularly, or to do the occasional post when I feel like it.  I have realized that I need the blog for my own documentation of my knitting, food, garden and home.  I miss the inspiration that I get from using this space and reading other blogs, and I miss using it regularly and I’m sure at some point I will be sharing often again.

I however do not miss the constant feeling of “keeping up with the Joneses” knitting community.  The strange feeling of competition, and showing off recent purchases.  The chum feeding of yarn, and feeling inadequate with what you’re currently doing.  The need to have the hardest, prettiest, most commented on projects.  I’m hoping that by having this break from blogging, I will be able to distance myself from that mentality, and that type of blogging.

Stepping away from my blog has definitely given me a chance to examine why I want to (or don’t want to) pursue this and why it’s important to me.  I’m looking forward to a renewed outlook, and hopefully renewed inspiration.

Anthony, Ella and I have been sighted on the tv’s all around Eugene (which I have to admit are few and far between).  We had to have someone tape it for us (we have a TV, but no channels), but luckily it’s on the internet for anyone’s viewing pleasure!

So why would our little family unit be on TV?  Our beautiful bike is the reason!

For more info about our bike, check out Anthony’s blog Ride Three.

To see the video clip, check out KVAL’s website.

Flat Stanley arrived at our house and he spent some time here learning all sorts of fun things to do. Instead of taking him around Eugene (we had a lot of yucky rainy weather), we decided to show him what we do with our spare time. If you would like to check out what Anthony did with Flat Stanley (vroom vroom!) check out his site, Ride Three.

First I took Flat Stanley out to coffee.

You just can’t visit the Pacific Northwest without getting coffee. Flat Stanley didn’t like the coffee that much, so I drank up the coffee while Stanley got to work. We went to the coffee shop to learn how to knit. I showed him the cuff of the sock I was working on.

Learning to knit and purl.

Then he started working on his first project, the Ripple Dishcloth.

Look at him go!

He had gotten quite a bit done on the dishcloth when he went into my knitting bag and we had to go home. After our trip to the coffee shop, I had to go to work, but now Flat Stanley had something to do with his spare time. So when I got home I took him out of the knitting bag and he had finished the dishcloth!

He gave it to me as a gift for showing him how to knit! He must have know that knit dishcloths are one my favorite things! I have to stay that Flat Stanley was an excellent guest. He was very kind, considerate, and we had a great time!

Flat Stanley wrapped up in a Baby Surprise Jacket.

Thanks Flat Stanley! Hope you enjoyed Eugene, Oregon!

A few weeks ago we had our Monday night knitting group at the Eugene Textile Center instead of Market of Choice. Now I’ve been going regularly to Monday night knitting since I started working full time (January ‘07), and it has become a necessary part of my routine (I would say it’s up there with drinking coffee in the morning). I feel weird if I haven’t got to a knitting group for awhile. The company and the advice I get from these fellow comrades in fiber is invaluable.

I’m not talking about just the the fiber advice. I have formed some great friendships with the women at knitting. We all have decided that knitting would be a major part of our lives, and naturally I connect with people who have similar priorities.

Knitting groups also are a great mix of people; different ages, different stages of life, different experiences, different knitting levels.  We are mostly women in this particular group, but we do have an occasional man join us.

It was extra special to be in a different place and get to see the new Eugene Textile Center.  I missed the grand opening the weekend after this, but I heard it was a great party.  Getting a new business that pushes fiber is always welcome in my mind, and I made sure to get a few pictures to share with you on the blog.

Since I don’t weave, there are a lot of things in here that I won’t be using, but the spinning fiber and dye space is wonderful. The space is centered around education and classes (pdf) in order to spread all the fibery goodness.

They had a large grand opening party and a good article in the Register Guard. I am excited about having another great local resource. If you are heading towards Eugene (Black Sheep Gathering is coming up!), make sure to put this on your visit list.

Things have been warming up around here, and spring is just around the corner. Starting in February, we finally get a reminder that sun does exist behind all those clouds in the Northwest, and that it will stop raining someday. The few glorious days are enough to start the spring fever, big time.

I started in the garden much sooner this year, knowing a little bit more about than last year. For instance, instead of putting strawberries in starter pots inside, I put them outside right away. Anthony and I cleared out a bed of iris bulbs mid February and I planted the strawberries in their place. A much better use for the soil if you ask me.

The strawberries are thriving well, sending out new leaves, and I’ve even found a few buds. They live right under our bedroom window, which I try to look out at them and check on their progress often. Can you tell that I’m excited about our first harvest? The strawberries are tristar ever-bearing strawberries. They should produce a heavy crop in spring and then continue slowly over the summer. They should also last for many years to come, and produce new plants to replace the old.

Since today was a nice enough day to get outside and work in the yard we also did quite a bit of digging.

I leave all plant destruction to Anthony. So while I was planting our seed starts for the summer (tomatoes, cauliflower, okra, peppers, artichokes, and several herbs) Anthony worked away at clearing out beds. We have slowly been working on turning our yard into our vision instead of that of the previous owner. The back bed is destined to become home to plants I can use as natural dyes and some herbs. The dark bed received new seeds today including sugar snap peas, mesclun, kolrabi, golden beets and bok choy. That was my only vegetable bed last year, but this year we should be making at least one more.

Plus, some of the perennials from last year are starting to show.

Asparagus peeking out to say hello.

The Madder plant is also showing new growth.

Newly transplanted Rosemary that I started from seed last year.

Obviously we have some big plans for the yard this year. As I start planning out where I want things to go and what I want to include, I try to keep my garden theme in mind; The Imagination Garden. Most of all I want our yard to be somewhere I can go to retreat from the world, to divine inspiration and to help us lead more sustainable lives. Now for the hard part, waiting for everything to grow! Do you have any garden plans for this year?

Look at what got delivered today! Yes Ella and I both fit in the sidecar, together. It has a trunk (just enough for camping gear!) and is going to be super fun. I don’t get tor ride for awhile though, because Anthony needs to be super comfortable before I jump in. Plus I need a helmet.

Check out Anthony’s new side car blog, Ride Three.

It’s finished! According to the archives, I dyed the wool sometime in February, got some of the first spun yarn off the bobbins in May, started knitting it in September, and finished it in December.

That photo is courtesy of TheBon.  She took the photo during our egg-roll party which was a smashing hit!  Anthony’s birthday is Dec 24th, we wanted to do something special for it this year.  Since people are usually busy and with their families during that time, we decided to wait until things had calmed down a bit and people were available again.

Somewhere along the way, I decided that we should have an egg-roll party, and the two things became one.  We provided the wrappers, oil, and dipping sauces.  Everyone else brought the fillings.  We had apple pie egg-rolls and brussel sprout and pancheta egg-rolls.  It was so good!  Bonnie also has a great post about the party here if you are interested.

Back to knitting.  Even though this is being posted mid-January, this was actually the last FO of 2007.  I had several things that were very close to finished, so I pushed through and finished this up the last week of December.  I have worn it and received many compliments on it.  Plus I get to show off that I dyed, spun and knit this beauty and watch the muggles jaws drop.

I was intending for this to be worthy of entry for competition at the Black Sheep Festival.  Unfortunately, I have a section where I did half a row, and turned back.  I could claim it was a short row shaping for my shoulder, but I don’t think they’ll believe me.  It means that I probably won’t have anything large to enter this year unless I get to spinning and knitting quickly.  I do plan on entering some spun yarn and maybe a smaller project.

I loved making the Lady Eleanor, and while there are many people who have made it already, if you haven’t it’s beautiful and fun to make.  Plus, if you spin, I made this out of merino (so squishy soft) for about $30.  Can’t beat that!

I have so many FO’s and not enough time to blog them!  First with a Christmas FO I never got to share.  Blog, meet Branching Out, Branching out, meet blog.

Pattern: Branching Out from Knitty Spring ‘05

Yarn: Malabrigo Lace in Lime Blue

Needles: Size 5 Susan Bates

I knit this for a Christmas present for my Mom.  After doing the Mystery Stole I was completely addicted to doing beads in my lace.  After I blocked it, I almost immediately went to the bead store to find the perfect match for this scarf.

I ended up using less than half the skein, so I could do another lace scarf with what I have left, which is about 29 grams.

I really enjoyed making this pattern, and overall it went fairly quickly.  It would have been even quicker without the beads, but not nearly as interesting.  The yarn is very soft, and was beautiful to knit with.

I still need a few people to sign up for the pay it forward so don’t be shy.

Thanks for all of the great comments about Anthony and my engagement.  It has been a very exciting holiday season.  I’ll try not to only blog about boring wedding stuff from now on. 

And I’ve almost caught up on reading blogs.  Only about 150 posts left, and still growing.  Will I make it before Monday?

We have had quite the momentous holiday season here. Well, first of all, Anthony’s birthday was December 24th, and this year was 30. We had a great time staying in the house, and lazing around.

He got a great Life is Good shirt from my parents. Ella was posing with him to duplicate the picture and show off her cuteness.

Here is a picture of our tree.

We had such a great time decorating our house for the first time. As you can see the wheel fits right in with the decorations. Again, Ella is posing to ramp up the cute factor. It is absolutely necessary to put animals in pictures to keep readership up.

I designed, knit, finished, and stuffed Anthony’s new stocking. With an extra large foot to hold extra goodies. Obviously I couldn’t blog about this one because it was one of those secret projects. I’m sure I’ll be revealing secret projects over the next several days.

The biggest news though is that Anthony and I got ENGAGED!

He got me a beautiful ring. We decided not to get a diamond, but instead got a color changing garnet. In artificial light, it’s purple.

And in natural light (or full spectrum CFL’s like we have a lot of in our house) it shows blue.

It is such a beautiful ring. I think all that threatening I’ve been doing about not finishing his sweater until I saw some sign of commitment has been working. I guess I need to get working on the sweater now. Of course we haven’t done anything like setting a date yet, but we’ll probably start planning before we know it.

I am so lucky to have such a wonderful man in my life. Plus this blog is partially responsible for us meeting. It only seemed right to share the news here.

Hope everyone is having a great holiday season. I’m hoping to catch up on blogs while I have a little time off!

No I’m not talking about the TV show, although Anthony and I are looking forward to finally being able to watch the third season. It took forever for it to come out on DVD! That should not be allowed. Really, why would they want to take so long to make money. (Granted we won’t be buying it, but renting it through Netflix. That is always how we watch TV and movies.)

No, I’m talking about a certain handspun hat that was blogged about mere weeks ago. I have already lost my hat! Well, truthfully I left my hat at the Dollar theater and then someone snagged it up. We were back to the theater less than an hour later and it was already long gone.

I was so sad and I officially decided I cannot be trusted with hats. Since I’m not used to wearing them, they often get left in weird places. I haven’t lost any mittens or scarves, but the hats can’t seem to stay with me. Last year I made a hat (also out of handspun) that only lasted a few weeks also. It didn’t even last long enough to get photographed.

So what to do? Do I make myself another hat and risk another loss. Or just tromp around town with a cold head? Plus if you see my hat, will you send it along my way. Thanks a bunch.