I was all proud of myself for making a sock for the Warebeast. I made excellent time on it. It was a nice yarn. He loved the pattern. He tried it on. It was the biggest sock I have ever seen. I must have been in some kind of denial while making it. There was no amount of squinting or tucking that could make it work. I kept telling myself that the cables would make it gather more, that I needed the extra inches. After a night of mourning, I pulled out the sock all the way back to the foot. I kept telling myself that I knit for the process, that this is ok, but I had some choice words to share with myself.

An Evening at Havenscourt Homestead and Upcoming Events

On Tuesday, the Boy and I spent a LOVELY evening in Oakland at the Havenscourt Homestead where we learned to milk goats, collected eggs and spent an evening of leisure around the fire pit listening to the goats bleat, quail coo, chickens cluck and the occasional distant siren-- the sounds of urban farm life.

Kitty Sharkey started work on her homestead about 2 years ago and has an impressive back yard farm in high production now. With four Goats, twelve hens, four quail two hives, two cats, two oscars and a couple dozen pond fish, you'd think her place would be crowded but I was very impressed with how well she had used her space. Between two goats, she milks just over half a gallon every evening and collects a handful each of quail and chicken eggs daily as well. She swears her gardens are a mess but I look at them and am in awe of the tomato harvest she filled her fridge with. She's looking forward to a time when her organic farming practices will bring her up to 75% self sufficiency. It is an ambitious goal, but certainly one worth working towards.

Aside from her day to day farming practice, Kitty is working with her goats to train them as therapy animals. Sammy, her young wether (castrated male goat) is often the favorite of visitors as he is small, friendly and has an extraordinarily soft coat for his breed. Many of the neighborhood children have been invited into the yard to meet "the kids", as Kitty affectionately calls her little herd and she will be bringing them to the Norther California Renaissance Faire's brand new petting zoo starting this upcoming weekend (September 18th and 19th).

Speaking of which, The Ren Faire has 2 for 1 tickets THIS WEEKEND ONLY! Come see the court, stay for a show (or three) and cool down with a pint while you browse he marketplace. Stand aside when you hear drums and fanfare because the Queen is coming! Boy and I are at the head of the parade as part of the St. Blaise Town Criers followed by drummers, revelers and the Yeomen of the Guard. See you there!


Homestead photos are property of Kitty Sharkey and Havenscourt Homestead.

NCRF Promotional photo is property of Play Faire Productions.

A return to spinning

For the first time since the Napa craft fair, I have actually felt like spinning. My great uncle has a farm and gave me a huge bag of wool last month. They have three sheep and this was the fleece from one. I was so incredibly thrilled to get it, as you can imagine! My grandmother was less than thrilled. It had been sitting in her garage for a few weeks, until I could get down to pick it up. Warebeast and I went down for a friend's wedding and stopped to visit and woolgather. After my grandma fed him as much as she could, Warebeast had to stuff this trash bag full of raw wool into our trunk and we drove 6 hours back home. I've been giving the wool a daily bath, a third at a time. The first third is clean and carded, which is a story in itself. A story involving my non spinning friend fixing my drum carder, which cut the prep time into a fraction of what it was.

I have the whole house to myself this week. Freya, the Boy, and Warebeast all being at BurningMan. I had a pajama day, my own private craft day, and after knitting most of the day, looked back at the bag of batts that had been staring at me for most of the day, and spun two batts. I am loving the way it is spinning up and am glad to have the urge to spin after that intense prep work for the Napa show.

Burning Man, Christmas Knits and Other crafting Chaos

It's been a while since I posted an update. Life has been almost too hectic to bear. The Boy and I are leaving for the annual pilgrimage to Burning Man in 9 days and we're still working franticly to get everything ready to go. theres costuming to be sewn, shopping to be done and gear to be collected, not to mention shelter to be constructed.

Last year our sleeping quarters were a moderate sized dome, sheltered under the shade structure of the Foxy Kokonauts. This year we've gone rogue! We've built the skeleton for a 16' diameter dome and are nearly done with the fitted cover. take a look at the work-in-progress pic. The door is 9'+ tall!



In addition I am sewing some costume pieces(pics to come) including a Bedouin robe and a Turkish tassel-belt, both in warm earth tones. These are as much for the hell of it as they are for Burning Man and I'm really excited to have some nifty, durable costume pieces that aren't Renaissance Faire related.

As if these were not enough, I am still sticking to my Christmas knitting. One scarf down! I am now 4 reps into the Swallowtail Shawl which I mentioned wanting to do before. Dear gods that's a lot of counting! I'm not even 1/4 of the way through and I've muddled my pattern a handful of times. It didn't look too complex and I knew all the stitches it took, but this is certainly not a project for the undetermined or easily frustrated. A while back Riastiltskein tried her hand at it and I know she gave up 6 reps in. I however am determined not to be discouraged by its complexity and not to criticize myself too much for the practically invisible flaws I've knit into the pattern. Its complex enough that it hides my mis-knits pretty well. My grandmother will never notice, right?

My camera is still on haiatus, guys. I'm very sorry. The charger has disappeared but I'll be tearing apart my room before my trip to Burning Man becasue I will decidedly be taking lots of photos this year.

Well... Crap

I was part way through knitting a hooded blanket for my baby cousin and then I got photos from my grandmother... That little tyke ain't too little anymore! By the time Christmas rolls around she'll be trundling along on her own and that blanket will be far too small for anything she might need it for. I think I need to make a sweater... change of plans then... damn...

ADOS

I have a horribly horrible psychological disorder. I have ADOS. Attention Deficit... OOH SHINY!!

Case: I went out to lunch yesterday with a fellow I just met and we wandered around Berkeley a lot. We had some fantastic conversations and seem to get along splendidly but what really got me excited was a friend of his he introduced me to. He had to drop by one of the grad student housing buildings so he could say goodbye to someone he knew there but before I could stand awkwardly in the background while he said his goodbyes, I noticed that one of the gals was wearing a Swallowtail Shawl!(free pattern under the link) She noticed my handknit hat and we both started squeeing about yarn and knittng and spinning and she took me up to her room to fondle her stash! The fellow I had come with had been forgotten. Oops! >_<

Point: Distractability is bad for dates but good for making crafty friends.

Cheers!

Cat Yarn

So I went back and watched the kid that likes the spinning wheel. Of course I brought the spinning wheel and he watched me spin for a while. He likes to treadle for me while I draft the fiber. I think he is less interested in the fiber than the spinning wheel and all the mechanical parts. He does however have a knitting bag with a loom though, which is adorable.

He had saved a bag of cat hair for me and asked if we could spin it. The short answer is no. We tried. I think it could have been possible given a few parameters: a long haired cat or carders. Halfway through the attempt at spinning the cat hair, I decided that it would be much easier if I mixed in some wool. However, I hadn't brought my carders and we couldn't find the cat brush, so I just sorta did it by hand, which wasn't terribly successful. We managed to get a little spun, but on the whole it was not terribly successful. So now when people ask me if you can spin cat hair, I know the answer: not easily.

Riastiltskin