Over the Martin Luther King, Junior weekend, five friends and I stayed in a condo right on the beach in Ponce Inlet, Florida. Another friend joined us just for the day on Saturday. It was glorious. We knit, we crocheted, we spun, we wove, we blocked, we discussed dyeing, we watched Marvel movies, we talked, we laughed. It was everything a knitting retreat with friends should be. Rather than give a long-winded description of this perfection, I offer you pictures. With captions, of course.
The view from our balcony.
The building we stayed in. If you look closely at the left hand side of the building, you might be able to pick out the red lounge chairs on our deck.
Lunch on Sunday. l to r: Lorelle, Fredi, Dawn, Nancy, Shellee, me.
Every fiber event should have a ball winding station!
Shellee was the only one of us who didn’t already know how to spin. Nancy gave Shellee her first spinning lesson!
Fredi set up her drum carder on the balcony, so any extra bits of fluff would blow away on the breeze.
Lorelle learned how to use the drum carder, and turned compacted roving into beautiful batts.
Nancy finished knitting this shawl 3 years ago, but wasn’t sure how to block the curved edges. Eight months ago, she gave it to me to block. I hadn’t done it yet, so I brought it to the retreat and we got it blocked!
I promise I actually did weave — the loom wasn’t just a handy fiber holder.
The speck in the water behind the third gull from the left is Lorelle. She was the only one of us brave enough to actually get in the water!
Lorelle’s in this picture also, pretty much smack dab in the middle of the shot.
Fredi, Nancy, and Shellee watching Lorelle swim.
We had a fantastic time, and none of us were quite ready to leave. But our lives called, so Monday we all packed up and headed home. But we’ve decided that this will be an annual event. MLK weekend = local fiber retreat every year!!
This happened when I got home. Apparently my cats missed me.
I’m taking a time out from packing to write a quick post. Last November, I registered attend PlyAway, a spinning conference hosted by PLY Magazine. My friend Lorelle was planning to go too, but by the time registration came around, she knew she wouldn’t be able to attend. “I’d love to go to fiber events with you,” she lamented, “but work and other financial obligations keep me from going. Why aren’t there any local retreats?”
“We can make our own retreat,” I responded. And so we have. This weekend, six of us our staying in a condo on the beach. One or two others are driving in for the day on Saturday. I’m the only one who knows everyone going. Everyone else knows no more than two others and some (including Lorelle) don’t know anyone other than me. We have no firm schedule. Everyone’s bringing their projects. Via e-mail, everyone shared what they are bringing and what they’d like to learn. Fredi’s bringing unwashed fleece and will show us how to wash it. She’s bringing her drum carder and hand combs so we can make rolags if we wish. I’m bringing all my acid dyes and equipment for dyeing, including bare yarn. Dawn’s bringing bare fiber. Dawn, Nancy, and I are all bringing our rigid heddle looms. Shellee and Lorelle have never woven before and want to try it out. Everyone except Shellee spins; she’s going to try the spindles Nancy and Dawn are bringing. Everyone else is also bringing their spinning wheels. Shellee will show us her unique method of knitting. She speeds along so fast, her hands are a blur.
So now I’m packing, and I must consider the first question — the one a fiber crafter always asks before she packs anything else — which projects shall I bring? How many is too many.
I’m definitely bringing the current project on my rigid heddle loom.
I’ll bring yarn to warp the loom again, in case I finish this project. I have at least 3 spinning projects in progress, but I’m only going to bring the Three Feet of Sheep with me.
I really run into trouble with the knitting projects. Shall I bring the Bubble Baby Blanket that I haven’t worked on in months, but is part of my Detention OWL for the Harry Potter Knitting / Crochet House Cup (HPKCHC)?
Or the Begonia Swirl Shawl that I started months ago to replace the one that was accidentally felted?
Of course I’m going to bring the Cloisters Shawl I only started working on a week and a half ago!
I need to bring some crochet. Because I must have all the things, right? I’ll probably just toss some cotton and a hook into my bag so I can whip up some quick dishcloths. Maybe 2, no 3, who am I kidding 4, better make it 5, seriously 6 skeins is the limit.
Am I bringing enough? Better toss in just one more thing — I don’t want to run out of projects.
Oh! Shellee is bringing blocking mats and wires. I need to bring the 3 shawls I have laying about that just need blocking!
I have not yet written crafting goals for 2016. November and December were pretty crazy around here! First was my mother-in-law’s 80th birthday on Thanksgiving Day. Then there was the Weavers of Orlando Annual Sale, followed the next weekend by the Holiday Party. Then we had Christmas festivities with my family. On December 28, I flew to Indiana to play matron of honor for Stacy’s wedding on January 2. Chris flew up on December 31 so we got to spend New Year’s Eve together. We just flew home this afternoon, to a cooler and wetter Florida than I left last Monday. Stacy’s reception was held in a building at the same fairgrounds that hosts The Fiber Event. It was so strange to be in that building without seeing rows of lovely fiber, yarn, and tools for sale!
This past week has been busy as the wedding preparations including baking 680 cookies and a 5-tier wedding cake! Stacy, her mother, her aunt, her sister-in-law, and I baked the cookies last Wednesday. Fortunately, we had the use of Stacy’s parents’ church kitchen, which had a commercial oven that could fit 150 cookies at once. We baked all 680 cookies in only 3.5 hours!
Here I am putting the last batch in the oven!
After baking cookies, we started on the cakes. I was the lead decorator and giver of orders, as I have been decorating cakes since I was 12! I made the cakes and the lemon curd. Stacy made the chocolate ganache and all the buttercream and mixed lemon buttercream and raspberry buttercream.
I may have used this cookbook once or twice.
Her mother and aunt cut out fondant Christmas trees and painted them with powdered food coloring. I showed Stacy’s sister-in-law how to pipe miniature Christmas trees and she cranked out 250 of them, while Stacy’s mother went behind her putting the little stars on top of each tree.
The army of trees.
Stacy’s brother cut the dowel rods that help support each tier (using a pipe cutter borrowed from a cousin) and her father cut and sharpened the dowel rod that goes from the top to bottom through all the tiers. When it came time to stack all the cakes, Chris helped me line up my edges correctly. At every step of the way, Stacy and I discussed colors and placement of pieces. This is the first time I’ve made a cake in such a collaborative fashion. It was so much fun, and I love the result!
Now that the wedding is over and I’m home, it’s time to look ahead and lay out my goals for 2016.
Taking Stock
Before I start making ambitious plans for myself, I wanted to look back at 2015, to see what I finished and what remains unfinished. I’m working on a slide show of all the projects I finished this year, and I will publish that later this week. Today, I’m making a list of all my WIPs. It’s a scary list, even though it only includes projects I’ve actually started, not everything in my mental queue!
Knitting WIPs
Projects started in 2015
TKGA Master Knitter, Level 1
This week I will start working on addressing my gauge issue
Splash Socks (started in April 2015)
Tier Scarf (started in June 2015)
Miranda Shawl (started in July 2015)
Bubbles Baby Blanket (started in July 2015)
Morrigan Shawl (started in August 2015)
Begonia Swirl Shawl Redux (started in August 2015)
Finishing
I still have all the sweaters I got from S. They need to be seamed and blocked. I believe there’s 10 or 11 projects right there!
Projects started prior to 2015
Dishcloth Advent Calendar
I need to knit or crochet 18 each of 25 different patterns. This is a list of the knitted dishcloths I’ve finished.
18 leaves
18 tribble scrubbies
18 waffle stitch
4 brick pattern
16 illusion heart
4 random designs (1 each of 4 different patterns)
Traveling Scarf
Evenstar
Baby Blue Monster
Crochet WIPs
Granny Square Blanket (started in 2014)
Skulls and Roses Scarves (started in October 2015)
Dishcloth Advent Calendar
I need to knit or crochet 18 each of 25 different patterns. This is a list of the crochet dishcloths I’ve finished.
18 hyperbolic
9 ladderstitch
4 or 5 diagonal (corner to corner)
Spinning WIPs
Camel Down / Silk Blend (started in September 2015)
Three Feet of Sheep (started in August 2015)
One pound of BFL (started in November 2015)
Weaving WIPs
Since the only loom I’ve been using is my rigid heddle, I only have one weaving project in process! I started this scarf on December 5, 2015 while at the Weavers of Orlando Annual Sale, so that I could demo weave. I talked to many people throughout the days of the sale and did a fair bit of weaving. I haven’t had time to work on it since.
In addition to this project, I now have the storage unit full of weaving things to sort. This includes minor repairs to one loom (the 36″ Harrisville) and probably a complete refinish of a second loom (the 48″ Macomber). I’m hoping to the the storage unit cleaned out by mid-February, though the refinishing job will most likely take longer than that.
Dyeing
Dyeing doesn’t really have WIPs as something is either dyed or it isn’t. But this is a list of dyeing projects I’ve been meaning to do but haven’t.
Dye Maple Leaf Shawls (pending since December 2014)
Dye Triangles (pending since August 2014)
water source / pH experiment (pending since early 2015)
I’m not sure if this is actually all my WIPs. It’s everything I could find laying about or listed in my Ravelry project pages, but I’m sure I missed more.
I haven’t updated my progress since week 29, back in July! Since we’re coming to the end of the year, it’s time to review my goals and start thinking about goals for next year. Anything that’s crossed through in the list is something I did not get to at all. If I did any work on a goal, even if it isn’t finished, I kept it on the list and made notes about its status. In early January, I will publish a slide show with pictures of every project I finished this year and a list of goals for next year. While I didn’t finish everything I hoped to finish this year, I am happy with what I accomplished. I learned a great deal, especially about crochet, and I’m looking forward to learning more in 2016!
Review of 2015 Goals
Knitting
Knit myself a sweater Moved to 2016. In July, my friend Stacy got engaged and I’ve been working on projects for her wedding instead of knitting a sweater!
Swatches 1-12 knit on size 7 needles, finished by July 19, 2015
I did actually finish the swatches by the dates listed here. I went to Masters’ Day at the TKGA Conference and learned that I had guttering issues I need to work out before finishing my swatches. I haven’t gotten back to my swatches yet.
It’s a busy time of year, what with Christmas coming up and my friend Stacy getting married on January 2. I have a long list of things to do, and a growing panic that I won’t get everything done. I don’t really have time to sort through all the weaving things I bought last weekend, but I have not been able to entirely ignore the siren call of my new storage unit. I’ve gone twice, for about 1/2 hour each time.
I started cleaning the dust off the Macomber loom. I looked through 2 boxes of books and selected a few to bring home now (more on this in another post over the weekend). I sorted through a basket full of miscellaneous tools, most of which were shuttles of various types and sizes.
In the basket of miscellaneous tools, I found four variations on a tool, but I don’t know what it is. At first I thought that they were pieces to be assembled into something else; now I think they are their own thing. But I don’t know what that thing is. Can you name that tool in three pictures?
Here they are in the closed position. The right-hand metal band on each piece slides down so that the middle piece can be folded out.
Here’s what they look like in the open position. When the middle piece is folded out, you can see that it has holes drilled all along it. I’m not sure if the eye hooks come out so that you can move that middle piece so it will be a different length. I was afraid I would break the tool if I tried to remove the eye hook, so didn’t play with it at all.
On the back side, the tools have sharp pointy teeth at each end. It was these teeth that made me think that these were parts of a larger object. I thought they were fasteners to connect two pieces of wood.
The only reason I’m thinking each might be an individual tool is because so far I haven’t found any other parts that seem to attach to these. The four items are all different sizes and different brands, so they do not attach to each other. I do have two or three bundles of long pieces of wood that I haven’t yet unbundled. The cursory glance I gave those bundles when we were loading and unloading the van led me to believe that they are full of warp sticks and lease sticks, but it’s possible that I might find pieces that belong with these four mystery pieces. Since I don’t know what the four mystery pieces actually are, I might not recognize other pieces that belong with them!
So, interwebs, what say you? Can you help a newbie weaver out? What are these things?
