Arm Warmers

This is the project I was working on the other day.

Schoeller and Stahl's 6 ply Limbo Mexiko, colour # 2586. I usually need 'a few' of these for Summerfolk, so I've been rooting through the stash looking for suitable candidates.

The Mexiko knit quite easily on the 54 needle cylinder (large hooked needles) at a tension about 3/4 turn looser than 4 ply setting.

Some other 6 ply I found in the stash:

This is Regia Crazy Color, colour # 5265, 6 ply 75/25 wool/nylon.

This is Opal 6 ply colour # 1710 , also 75/25 wool/nylon.

The last two pairs are my 'mid length' size, which is just short of the elbow. I start my tension a little looser at the elbow end, and reel it in near the wrist.

Some things grow in the cold:

And not just Jesse's coat!

My tomato plants are turning into monsters from hell. Already past 4' all with limbs spreading like pumpkin vines. There are lots of flowers and the fruit is now forming. While the fruit is behind schedule for the time of year, the vines certainly are ahead of the game.

I should prune the growth some...but where to begin! I.m afraid to go in there alone and unarmed....

Checkin' out some new genetics
I've been looking at these lately.

He Stuck In His Thumb

And pulled out a plum...

Fresh from the dye pot is this batch of Plum Sock Yarn. 75/25 Wool Nylon dyed with Prochem's washfast acid dye, colour Plum.

This is a dark dye, and while I appreciate dark tones, I think I might like to try this at a lighter shade too.

This is a pair of size Medium knit up with the Plum Sock, and using the Slate Blue I dyed last week for heels, toes, and a wee stripe under the hem top.

6 Ply
You know I do most of my knitting with fingering weight/4 ply type sock yarns.
For the past few days, when not at the dye pot, I've been doing some projects with 6 ply.

Here are some shots of the first project unfolding, using Schoeller & Stahl's 6 ply Limbo Mexiko Color, colour #2586:

Back at the Blues

Here it is July 25th, and I think we've had a total of seven minutes sunlight all Q@#$#^# month.

I'm not a heat lover, but really!

Maybe that's what's put me back into the Blues.

This is a batch of Slate Blue, fresh out of the dye room, in my own 75/25 Wool Nylon fingering weight.

This is another colour in the same syndrome as the Chestnut Brown... I keep dyeing it but I don't know where it goes!

Huron and Deep Huron
I knit up a few pair of size Medium socks with the new batches of Huron and Deep Huron I dyed last week:

The darker blue is coming out darker-than-true on my screen... it is a deep, almost ink blue, but not of the Navy ilk.

And, here is another Medium pair...

This pair is knit with the Opal Feelings series, colour # 1703.

I still have more cakes of blue (awkward phrase to avoid saying blue balls)wound from the last assault, and I'll try to knit them off the table next week.

I've got to get that Yarn In Waiting table cleared off as I have a (long) list of things I want to get knit for the Summerfolk Music and Artisan Festival in mid-August...and that is quickly sneaking up on me.

Counting
Yarn Geek was asking if I use row counters on my sock machines.

I don't.

I got so used to counting semi out loud - almost under my breath - that it is second nature.

I do have a counter on my skein winder, similar to what Yarn Geek described, and I find I still count along out of habit. I'd be more inclined to rely on it if it were a fancy set up that actually stopped winding when it hit the magic number, but that's way-y-y-y too fancy for my humble set up ;o)

More Koigu Hearts

A few more colours in my Koigu Hearts series, both in size Medium.

The top pair is colourway P219.

I found myself humming the Beatles' Strawberry Fields Forever while I knit. (Well, technically, not while I knit as I'm counting rows semi-out-loud. But in the heels and toes I don't count, and so can hum away!)

The second pair is colourway P207.

I was still humming Strawberry Fields Forever...stuck in my head. I'll need to find a name for this colourway.

I'm sure I saw, on some website I've long lost, 'names' for Koigu colours...not sure if they were making them up (like me) or if there is actually an official name besides the dog tag numbers.

??

That's on the list to investigate.

It would be embarrassing if there were correct names and I'm motoring on making them up. That would confuse all of us!

At the Dye Pot

There must be poltergeist in the wool shack that love brown. Chestnut Brown.

I never remember knitting it. I never remember selling it. But I keep dyeing more of it because I don't have any!

I actually really like the colour, especially when I've OD'd on blue, but it just seems to vanish.

Egad, maybe one day I'll lift a box looking for reds and come upon a huge stash of brown.

Sailor's Delight

Red sky at night, sailor's delight.
Red sky at morning, sailor take warning.

Such a beautiful sunset at the farm last night.

Surprising, not in the least because there hasn't been much of a sun to set this July.

And cold! It was so cold at the farmers' market on Saturday that the one coat I brought was insufficient and a customer had to take pity on me and lend me an extra jacket he had in his car.

In July!

I shouldn't complain - I'm not a heat person - and if I lived in Kelona, British Columbia, I'd be dealing with mid thirties heat wave and flash forest fires that sent thousands scattering from their homes.

Koigu Lavender Blueberry

This is another Koigu KPPPM pair of size Medium socks, knit with the 54 needle cylinder on the Legare 400. The heart motif is from Jenny Deter's Unique Fancy Sock Patterns (for the sock machine). The darker colour is P439 and the lighter is P402. (Or as I call them, Lavender Blueberry).

A Little o This n That

Sometimes Jesse thinks he's a sheep.

He doesn't eat the hay - at least not often - but he really loves to jump up on the bales. I guess he can see further from that vantage. And when the hay bales are gathered from the fields and placed in long rows, he delights in jumping up and running up and down the rows, and jumping from row to row.

Now that I think about it, the grandkids take the same delight!

Hot off the press skein winder

Here are two batches of sock yarn I dyed last week.

I stole some time today to wind them.

Both are dyed using Prochem washfast acid dye, colour Colonial Blue - two small batches with two different intensities.

I really de-blued my stash over the past month, so some re-stashing is in order!

I think I'll knit these two first....maybe in combination main/colour heel/toe colour.

New from Arkansas

This package arrived from the good folks at Flourish Company, the manufacturer of my outdoor artisan booth.

This new addition - which may resemble the bags we used to keep the soccer balls in at gym class - is a set of inside walls - they hang onto the top horizontal frame rods, and then stretch taught onto the bottom horizontal frame rods. Its a very heavy duty mesh and it is used to hang display goods on, using little S hooks.

Much more portable - and better looking - than my heavy peg board or wire grid display panels. And not so heavy. And, on a warm day I can roll up the outside walls leaving only the mesh panels to break the sun up, let a little breeze in, and still have my display in tact.

As happy as I am with that purchase....

What a rip last night's hasty dinner was!

I know I shouldn't be surprised, but wouldn't it just be great if things that came from the inside of a package actually resembled the picture on the package!

OK....one more of Jesse!

Make Hay While the Sun Shines

Knitting (and blogging) has been relegated to the back seat recently and other work on the farm has come to the fore.

3 fields of hay have been cut. The first filed, nearest in the picture, took a rainfall after the cutting, but the winds blow strong over these fields and it seems the hay dried as quickly as it got wet.

There are still two fields to cut and rain in the forecast two days hence. Always a nail biter!

Still,

A few socks have managed to appear on the sock machine:

These pair are both size Medium, knit with the 54 cylinder on the Legare 400.

Both are in various combinations of Koigu KPPPM 100% premium merino fingering weight. I reinforce the heels and toes with Woolly Nylon.

Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat Blanket
Check out the blanket Moe is knitting for E over in Southampton.

Blow Ye Winds

This is unbelievable for July.

We hit a high of 11 degrees at the farm. 11 degrees! And howling winds from the North West.

Like flippin' winter out there!

I had already turned off the heat in the farmhouse and in the wool shack (um, when I turned the air conditioners on)!

Farmers who make hay need a minimum of 3 good days in a row to make hay. Preferably 5 good days. And by good I mean dry and not too humid.

It's not all bad news. Most grass species in Ontario are known as cool season grasses, which is to say they grow better when it's cool than when it's hot. But that's not helpful if you can't get some of it baled for winter.

On the Sock Machines today:

Nadda!

Too cold in the wool shack and I am NOT turning the heat back on out there in July! (OK, I confess, I did turn it on in the house when my fingers got too cold to click my mouse!)

I did, however, wind some yarn that I will HOPEFULLY be warm enough to knit tomorrow.

Click for mouth watering high res version ;o)

This is a Koigu KPPPM medley I think will make for an interesting sock project.

The colours, from left to right, P608, P219, P207, P439 and P402.

Opal meets Trekking

On my continuing quest to restock my Large blues... this pair is Opal Feelings series, colour #1703.

And another find in the stash:

This is Trekking XXL colour #166.

OK....I'm back up to snuff in Large Blue Socks....thank you for bearing with me...I'll see what other colours I can find to knit next week.

Where's What's the Beef?

Reading further along in the same Ag Rag that got me steamed about Turkey.... came an article about Beef.

It seems that President's Choice (huge higher end grocery label) is dropping their Ontario Corn Fed Beef from their lineup in Ontario supermarkets. Bucking the current consumer trend to shop 'closer to home' a la 100 Mile Diet, and even acknowledging the success of the local corn fed program, the chain is dropping the line so it can offer a 'National Line' instead - to avoid duplication of warehousing costs.

I read that article upstairs in 'the reading room'. And when I got downstairs I checked my online news site to see what was going on in the world (other than the MJ saga), what before my eyes does appear?

President's Choice is undergoing a massive recall of their beef due to e-coli contamination.

It would be funny except I'm sure the will make up the loses by paying the farmer even less next go around.

This is what it's looked like at the farm for days and days. Barely a few fleeting moments of sun.

That can make a farmer grumpy!

Peacocks and Turkeys

This is Opal #1616 Pfau (Peacock). One of the Opal wildlife series yarns resident in my stash.

And this is a size Large pair, knit up with the 72 needle cylinder on my Verdun 47.

While I like the colourway, I don't know that I would have named it 'Peacock'. It is colourful, but not as wildly bright as what I'd expect from the name.

And speaking of birds....

Do you know how to tell this is not an Ontario turkey?

Turkeys in Ontario, like chickens, eggs, and cows milk, are Supply Managed. You need to buy quota in order to farm these products commercially. And the Supply Management Boards impose have regulations written by agribusiness conglomerates to eliminate small family farmers that farmers with quota are obliged to follow.

I was reading in an Ag Rag today that Turkey Board regulations prohibit turkeys from being outdoors. Ever. And apparently regulations for chickens are heading in the same direction.

This screws organic turkey producers who, under Canadian Organic certification regulations are OBLIGED to ensure their turkeys have access to the outdoors.

It doesn't completely eliminate organic farmers....anyone can have up to 50 turkeys without falling under the oppressive thumb auspices of the Turkey Board. But it will prevent organic farmers from competing with factory farms.

I can think of some other turkeys who shouldn't see the light of day.