an ent knits

The one real downside to this spinning-while-walking thing is that I’m a lot less likely to pull out my camera. So, today, I have two photos from April, from Fort Tryon Park:

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I went contra dancing last night for the first time in way too long. Maybe this’ll be the time when thinking “I should really do that more often” will translate into reality…

I went up to New York this past weekend, to meet up with my parents. I also wanted to see the Fashioning Felt exhibit at the Cooper-Hewitt. I was a little worried about convincing them that they’d want to go, as they’d seemed singularly uninterested when I suggested it in April, but I think their recent experience of making felt (cat-toy-like balls, at Shelburne Farms) may have changed their minds a bit. At any rate, we all really enjoyed the excursion, though I will admit to being a little disappointed by the sustainable design exhibit upstairs.  (It was okay, and there were a few particularly interesting bits, but it wasn’t as awe-inspiring as I’d hoped.)

Though most of the Felt show didn’t permit photography, I took a few pictures in the one room where it was allowed:

I’d be tempted to try to set up something like that, if I thought it’d survive for more than a few days without being a very elaborate cat tree…

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I haven’t done any felting recently, but I did add a couple more repeats to my Estonian lace scarf, and I’m getting fairly comfortable with the pattern.

(The second photo is more true to the colors.)  It’s a wee bit longer than that now, but the light on Sunday afternoon was lovely (and I’ve missed all the nice daylight since I got home).

Crown vetch, from my walk to work last Sunday. It’s a weed, and not something I’d want in my garden (if I had one), but it’s much nicer than plain grass for an awkward hillside.

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I’ve been really busy with work this week, but I continue to spin while walking there and back. More of the rust-colored Jacob, which I hope to finish spinning next week.

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I said last week that I had some knitting to post. Here’s my most recent finished object:

It’s Cisco, with several modifications, some intentional and some less so, none of which are all that important. It now belongs to my new first-cousin-once-removed; I hope he likes it. (And, at least as important, that his parents like it.) (The yarn is superwash merino.)

I’ve been working a bit on my Estonian lace scarf, too, but I don’t have an updated picture yet. Maybe next week.

From a walk home, sometime last week.

Discoveries re. spinning and walking: I can’t spin and carry a mug of coffee. Nor can I spin and carry an umbrella. Yet. I’ll have to work on that…

I’ve been doing rather a lot of spinning lately, both while walking and while sitting at home. My spindles, especially, have been seeing more use than they had for a while, which seems to be a frequent effect of travel.

This is the green shetland I picked up at Spirit Trail at MDSW and started spinning by the campfire. It’s intentionally uneven, but I should note that it hasn’t been finished yet–it should look better after its wash-and-thwack.

This is a ten-yard sample skein of some zwartble I got in a swap a few months ago–about one day’s walking spinning. I like the sproinginess of the fiber and the fact that it’s so springy without being as soft as cormo. It seems like it would make a great sweater (if I had more than half an ounce or so), but I think this bit might be a smidge overscoured. (Also as yet unfinished.)

When I pulled the shetland off the Kundert, I started spinning this cormo/silk blend from Foxfire Fibre (purchased at Rhinebeck). I haven’t spent much time on it yet, but it’s very, very nice.

The primary at-home spindle project is this Sumac merino/bamboo from Amy Boogie. I’d say I’m about half to two-thirds of the way done with the first ounce.

And the current walking spindle project is this jacob from Gnomespun. My plan is a singles yarn for lace of some kind, which goes a lot faster than the finer two-ply that had been the previous wandering spindle project. So much so (along with the fact that this prep is fluffier) that I ran out of fiber halfway home on Saturday.

These next two photos, obviously, are not spindle-spinning, but it’s been very nice to get back to spinning on Amy the Lendrum, too.

This fiber is why I’d been avoiding her–it’s a gorgeous color, and really soft, but it’s full of VM. I think there’s a little still visible in this photo, and that’s after removing about one piece of VM for every four inches of singles. I need to sweep around the wheel to clear up the pile of straw and such. So I declared this bobbin done even though it’s not really full.

That meant it was time to go back to this stuff, for the other two plies for the 3-ply sweater yarn. This is cormo/kid mohair, and much more fun to spin. (Mostly because of a lower quantity of VM, but I think something else in the fiber/prep makes it easier to spin one-handed.)

There’s been a modicum of knitting, too–it might show up later this week.