Oh, and for you spinners out there, Bellwether offers fleece and rovings too! Bellwether .

If you go here and click on Gallery you can see lots of the beautiful projects sent in by people made from wool from their (or others) rare breed sheep.

I just posted a review for Cestari yarn by Chester Farms at WiseNeedle dot com (yarn review site) because I went there to see if it had been reviewed and it had been by this cranky person so I wanted to remedy that. Ha. Whoever goes there next will not know who to believe. But this yarn is PROCESSED WITHOUT CHEMICALS and the sheep ARE NOT PUMPED UP WITH FOOD SUPPLEMENTS and there is LANOLIN LEFT IN THE YARN! I mean, hello, people, these are great things to have in a yarn so I'm all for Cestari, baby. PLUS you can wash it in the machine. I'm making a scarf using Fuzzy Galore's reversible scarf pattern. I just washed the swatch by hand and it fluffed up and 'bloomed' so nicely.

For Christmas my knitting friend got me Handspun Treasures from Rare Wools so I'm all gung ho about these rare breeds. Check out this blog Carson Woolies to get an idea of what life's like when you own these sheep.

Oh yeah, here's the post for the definition for knitting!-- someone surely could add their two cents (rave rave).Knitting - Wikipedia

Hey, add your open source definition to the free encyclopedia!! I know some of you who are on the fiber ring could manage this, right? Here's your chance to add to posterity. There is no definition for theSpindle

Mmmmm. Me want sheep. When come back, bring sheep.
Icelandic Sheep

Hey!! It's Rama, the cross between a camel and a llama!! And quite possibly the source of the most expensive fiber around!!
The ARI Journal - Spring 2000 Vol. V #1 - Camel/Lama Cross

check outLBEvans Hand Knit Bags

Scroll down to see the children's sweater inspired by this mosque

you must buy this so as to help support getting knitting needles back onto the planes!!!!!
Sublime Stitching | Powered by CafePress.com

Check this out! Masochistic knitting, unparalleled!
Insane Knitting

Read the Warning! (also the piece on Beatrix Potter is good)
Handweavers and Spinners Guild of Victoria Inc: Newsletter 2000

I would like to talk one of these classes.
Knitting Workshops

There is a picture of Mary Walker Phillips here.
Stitches West 98

Here is the editorial to a magazine whose Spring issue was about knitting!! Found while doing a google on Mary Walker Phillips.
Surface Design Publications Fall 2001

Lately I've started working on Christmas presents. Hat for brother-in-law, blanket for the little Guatamalen girl that my sister and brother in law are adopting, the cloche from Vogue's little book of hats (you know which one I mean, I can't remember the proper title). A loooong time ago I had started knitting Lily Chin's pattern from better homes and gardens Knit It magazine, the cardi, and I almost ripped it out to start the Knitty topsecret sweater, but I figured I should finish it.



Friends of ours went thrifting and at Bible study last night Steve gave me a bunch of old knitting patterns and Dan some tapes of Thomas Merton. Let me tell you, those old sweaters are hi lar i ous. Ok, I'll have to take pics to show you the cover where there are these three perfectly coiffed women smiling and one has a bag of peanuts and one is holding a peanut and there is a stuffed squirrel perched on a fake styrofoam wall in front of them. Whaa? You know, the old magazines where they still modeled the men with pipes and golf clubs.



I picked up a bunch of Stitch by Stitch books from the thrift store the other day and they have lots of good techniques illustrated and some neat patterns. So I've laid off on the yarn acquiring and now I started with pattern acquiring. I always check out the sale annex of the local barnes and noble but usually there's nothing.



I'm really into blankets for some reason. I knit essentially a large washcloth pattern to make a blanket with some acrylic and this fake mohair that changed shades called Bianca by Lion Brand I got at the thrift store. But it's too small. The cats love it. Maybe I can add on a huuuuge border to make it a little more decent of a size.



I'm making the Pi circle shawl for a blanket and doing invisible increases instead of yo's and instead of using lace patterns between the increase rounds I'm doing slip stitch patterns. So far it's okay, I hope it doesn't end up all bunchy because of the tight fabric.



I was looking through my copy of Knitting in America the other day and found the section about Mary Phillips Walker, whose Knitted Counterpanes book I had just checked out from the library. I dig that heart wall hanging they photographed and I looked at it and tried to decipher it but knew I didn't have the knowledge to really figure out how she did that. So then I picked up Creative Knitting from the library and she gives all these funky new stitch patterns in there so maybe I can figure it out now. Also, one of the knitting pattern books I got from my friends is a Macrame (?!macrame wtf!?) booklet and it's by her. Any macrame nuts out there who want a Mary Phillips Walker booklet? Why all this Mary Phillips Walker stuff suddenly in my life? She seems like a really cool lady. Very creative and I can't wait to try those new stitches. I wonder if she's still around...



I have this devilish desire to go cash in all my change and then take the resulting money and spend it on yarn at the thrift store if there's anything good there. Really I should be knitting. I started this wool/mohair hat with this brown Anny Blatt yarn I got from the thrift store (where else?) and then I was reading through my copy of The Knitting Goddess and inspired by the scarf she has in there decided to do the ribbing in two colors so I grabbed some wool mohair lamb's pride oatmeal yarn I had in the stash and held that in the right hand to do two handed color work and boy did I have a hard time remembering how to throw with the right hand and keep the yarn tensioned. I have been knitting like how Anne Modestitt(?sp?) I know I'm spelling that wrong, sorry anne, but ANYWAY I knit how she knits if you want to see clicky on her linky I think it says Continental Uncrossed BTW the Creative Knitting book also has a very nicely inclusive illustrated bunch of pages showing the myriad of ways to throw and hold the yarn. When I was throwing with my right hand I was like, boy this sure is tedious.



I was trying trying trying to hold the yarn loosely and not pull it too tight when carrying the yarn in back, we'll see. It was supposed to be for my brother in law as mentioned above, but it may end up too small. He works as a gravedigger and I was thinking that the double layer around his ears would be nice for those frigid Wisconsin winter days. They have to set up this big 7x2 heater on the plot where they're going to dig and melt the permafrost. Another bit of trivia while I'm at it; did you know that granaries used to and some times still do, explode? The corn/grain is very insulative and the air is saturated with dust particles and the organic material starts to decompose and if the heat level reaches the ignition point it will explode and apparently they were big catastrophes because lots of people could be killed. Wow. I did not know that. When's the last time you heard of that? Same thing with hay and this one guy (protecting myself if it's a doobie (dubious) fact) told me that farmers sprinkle salt in the hay to keep down the moisture and rotting. And the animals need salt anyway so it's all hunky dorey.


Okay, I'm done now.

Oh, and speaking of Target (were we?) you must, must, must go there now! Jejune was complaining about the high cost of yarn and the relatively low cost of scarves at clothing stores... well, just so you know how much of a yarn geek I really am, I bought a scarf at Target and deconstructed it just for the yarn. And I do think I came out on the better part of the deal. Yay! It did not end up being a bunch of short little pieces, but rather 2 long pieces, slightly different dye lots, knitted every other row. Gah, I know this stinks because really I should document this with pics to make it interesting at all, but, oh well. I did go to Target's website to see if I could find a pic of the scarf there, but no dice. Nrr.

Hey, didja see the free pattern from Bagatell'slink?

Oh yes, this rules!
knitty.com
Congrats to everyone on a beautiful job well done!!!!

I
like
all
these
patterns!

Check out this Aussie's fabulously colored and textured knitting!
Women of Fibre

here is a cool shrug...

an article on Norwegian knitting!!!Car Problems and Knitting Injuries: Interview with a Norwegian Knitter - Suite101.com

Wasn't someone looking for these?...
Pattern - Toilet Roll Covers

And here's a purse, and you don't have to ?!?!?!?email for the pattern?!?!

Look! It's a free pattern for a book warmer!
Olavia’s Craft Kits

Play the
SheepGame

How to spin wolf hair...
Wolf Tales/Making Yarn - Part 1

make your own spinning wheel! (like Bagatell's dad did!)
craftdesigns.co.uk

Wooly Dogs - Member's Show and Tell Gallery - All Fiber Arts

An article about sheep!
ArtLoft2000.com - Sheep & Shepherd

Found some nice tutorials...
Love2Knit Tutorials

The Coffee Jokes
Too Much Coffee Man

In case you always forget to say 'rabbit rabbit'... (I can't recall who does that, only that her website has purple and black aaaaaagh! Oh yes, Hobby Whore)
harrumph! rabbit rabbit

Have you seen the
klein_bottle_hats
I especially like the rainbow one (scroll down) with the Moebius scarf!! Only $70! What a steal!!

Now you can get your very own
CrashBonsai Gallery

Any leftover tulle? Knit your own potscrubber!!
Untitled

If you sew, you can make your own sumo doll
handworks index

Here are some cloud animals. I especially like the ones entitled 'Backend of Sheep' and 'Squirrel Sitting on Africa'
The Animal Clouds

Make a Knitting Box
Knitting box

Look! it's the
The Ashford Mini Niddy Noddy - portable for skeining yarn from Crystal Palace Yarns - Straw Into Gold, Richmond California

Hey!! A (new to me) fiber animal-- a Pygora!! The fiber was used to crochet (ahem!) a shawl/scarf
handspun - handknit crocheted shawl  - Sally McCarrick - The Black Sheep Gathering -  Eugene, Oregon

More bags.

I want an
alpaca

Ok y'all, thank your lucky start that somehow I was able to include all the 'necessaries' like the blogring button, else this template change would have ended in tragedy. Don't forget to read my (now seeming veeeery long) post !scroll down!scroll down! about what I'm working on these days. I'd try to figure out why the wanderlust button is floating away up there, but I fear that I'd lose my archives and blogring button!!! Maybe I'll feel braver tomorrow. Ta!

I'm reading Bill Holm's "Eccentric Islands" right now so I thought I'd offer you a sample of this MN native...
Holm

KNITTING UPDATE!!!!

Yes, finally some content to this here blog, for any of you that still come to look at my same-old, same-old template with no pictures posted. I know, how boring can I be? Inspired by Sarah's posting of the picture of plouf? I decided to tell you all about what I'm working on these days. No, I am not ambitious enough to get pics posted which is why my blog will never rate... Maybe when it's done? So, when Dan and I went to southern MN to do our century (2 weekends ago, it seems like eons) I of course had to go to Woolworks website and see if there were any yarn shops in the area. SCORE! In a little town there (Harmony, MN) there was Austin's Goat Farm. Mohair goats, that is. Oh, I walked around the shop after we had seen the goats (they'd been dipped so thier soon to be sheared fleeces could be sent overseas) and saw all the beautiful things (handknitted shawls to die for, jackets made from thrifted felted sweaters etc. etc.) calmly not rushing immediately to the yarn section. The picture online did not give me hope, so I took my time, only casually stumbling upon the SHELVES AND SHELVES OF GORGEOUS HANDSPUN FIBER!!!!!
So, it took me a looooooooong time to finally decide. But here's the thing, the yarn is actually waaaay cooler than I even knew when I bought it! You know how people spin yarn and then dye it, right? Well, (excuse me while I hyperventilate on and on about this if you've already become familiar) this woman actually changes the colors by changing the fibers!!
I imagine this magician-like woman, at her spinning wheel, with piles of fiber at her feet, moving as a conductor as she picks from pile after pile. So the yarn has a base of grey and garnet/burgundy wool and she adds some pink mohair here and there, letting some of the curls just pop out of the yarn, sometimes letting the grey wool 'bloop' (that's the only word I can think of) out so you see a thick piece of ?roving? ?fleece?. Ahh, words do not do justice. Gol ding it, nothing before has grabbed me like this! I swear I want to hunt this woman down (she lives in Waseca, MN) and sit at her feet and learn to spin RIGHT NOW! Juaquetta Holcomb, if you're out there email me at ihatespammclaughlin@attbi.net!!!! I did a little internet search and got her address and phone no. so maybe when I am done knitting this sweater I'll send her a pic of it.

I'm using a pattern from Tricoter's Simply Beautiful Sweaters. It's the cardi they knitted using Colinette. So I'm using that handspun yarn with Brown Sheep's Lamb's Pride I had in my stash that's grey and it's just gorgeous. Had to share. Thank you.

Yes, pummelling brings me peace of mind as well.
wrap 1

Have you seen these children's books? I haven't but I think I'll check them out...
Scary Stories Inc.

ooookaaaay. I told my husband that if I die then this is what he should do. Then he could wear me on a ring and someone would say, "Oh, was that your wife's ring?" and he'd say, "No, it IS my wife.".LifeGem Prices

Reduce, reuse, recycle
Mouse Pad Couch

The last game I tried to post didn't work...
See if you really are as fast with the left mouse button as you think you are...
Fly The Copter - South Coast Diaries - Seethru Zine

More SUV pranks...
Park Slope Public Works resents sport utility vehicles

Maybe Bagatell has already blogged about this, but here's another boo hiss story about McDonald's
McAfrica burger launched in Norway

More bags

Here is a poem I found on the Jean Moss website;

"The Prayse of the Needle"

To all dispersed sorts of arts and trades
I write the needles prayse (that never fades).
So long as children shall be got or borne,
So long as garments shall be made or worne,
So long as hemp or flax, or sheep shall bear
Their linen woolen fleeces yeare by yeare,
So long as silk-wormes, with exhausted spoile,
Of their own entrails for man's gaine shall toyle,
Yea till the world be quite dissolv'd and past,
So long at least, the needles' use shall last.

- by John Taylor, the Water Poet, (1580-1653)

Here is a hedgehog rucksack produced using car innertubes... reduce reuse recycle
The Inner Tube

A terrible game. Use your mouse to throw up and down.

Does Dangerous Chunky know about this?
Big Things, Community Monuments in Canada

Check out the
humanclock.com - Submissions Gallery

If you ever think about having sheep as I do sometimes, read about
Washing Wool

I keep thinking that someday I would like to have sheep or rabbits or goats for fiber. See if you qualify...
The Angst of Custom Millspun Yarn

More of these braids.
????

Here are some good pictures of the finished product.
Kumihimo

It's some sort of new fiberart...
Hatchtown - Marudai for Kumihimo

I know some of you are addicted to bags...
oggi e domani --- evening bags

Look!! It's the AlpacaCam!!
Blue Moon Ranch Web Cam

Here is something new I learned. Lamb's tails are docked when they are little. Is nothing sacred?!?!?! I'm sure there's some good (hygeine) reason, but still. Here is a
Glenquarry -"Sheep with Tail"

Then of course there's always Teva Durham. I like the
loop-d-loop.com online store: Braided Neckpiece

Whoa...
Here's
an interesting article for any of you vegetarians or vegans to read about the BK veggie burger. Reduce animal suffering by eating it despite the butter on the bun. Hmm. I never thought of it that way. I don't think that that's how I am a vegetarian.

Here is a cotton chunky sweater in ladder stitch

Here is another take on lace...
lace sweater for Fall

This
is a nice way to use lace in a sweater. Recognize those stitch patterns, anyone? Must go check my Barbara Walker...

Here is a sweater they say is an ultra hip rendition of the old Fair Isle style. Can we say, 'no'?
bouclz

This sweater is cute, can we say, boobies?
Boobie sweater

Wow, check out this space-dyed short sleeve sweater. Way to take advantage of the way space dyed yarn sort of 'blobs'
space dyed sweater

Hmmm... it's getting to be Fall. I like this
sweater...
I guess I'd have to buy some kind of a big 'ol grommet gun, though, if I were to try and make it. Bwah ha ha.

Try solar dyeing... before the summer ends.
dyeing

AHHHHHHHH! Nooooo! Say it isn't so!!!! A McDonald's Hotel.
The Globe and Mail: Series

Hit the randomizer for a new pseudoword.
pseudodictionary - the dictionary for words that wouldn't make it into dictionaries :: v2.0

If you have a pretty fast connection and computer, then you can take some time and see an aerial view of your neighborhood. Creepy.
TerraFly

The Simpsons: sell out or sold out? you decide...
Panderers in Japan

If you have some time...
Nobody Here

Now you can relive your childhood...
Lite-Brite

check out Kartoo... It's a search engine that displays it's results in a map format.
kartoo

Just in case you ever wanted your own, personal font...
Go Font Yourself!

Don't you just love Elrond's crown?!?!
Gem.net: Lord Of The Rings Jewelry

See some fishies!!
Giant Ocean Tank Web Cam

Here is a link to something sort of similar to a found objects site; Bill Keaggy has collected and put up found grocery lists.
/ keaggy.com :: The Grocery List Collection /

yes, so now you know, I spend all my time digging up links like this for you. especially for all you cat lovers out there...
nav

Check out...
weebl and bob

And now you can play with a black ribbon. Don't panic if your cursor freezes for a minute.SURFACE.YUGOP.COM || MONO*crafts 3.0

More eyehand candy for you...
floccus

Yes, it's really true. I found the third audio recording especially nice...
Dialtones (A Telesymphony) - Mobile Phone Concert

If you are interested in motion, You can tell your friends you went to the
sodazoo.

Here is a fun site for you, especially if you like pixels.
I especially liked the link to David with the long arm which does have an option to play it in English if you'd like.
Flip Flop Flyin'

you know the stuff you used in college to hang posters? the stuff thats sitting uselessly in a little wad somewhere in your office drawer? bring it to new, unthought of heights...
Worsley Institute of Blu-Tack Art

Hello Kitty as psychologist...
hellokitty

Top 10 rules to making a good espresso...

I found this this morning while I was searching for some info on my espresso machine, Buon Caffe Model 310. Apparently the company is not in business anymore, wah.

Well, during the 6 hour drive to visit my parents I got out "Knitter's Workshop" and cast on for the Baby Surprise Jacket. I figured I should start with the more simple, original pattern. AND GUESS WHAT!! I figured out what I was doing wrong with the sl1, k2tog, psso decreases!!! I'm so excited, because I was really starting to worry that there was something inherently wrong with how I knit that made them curve. No, no, no. It's just that I was stacking them one atop another. Duh. You know, like if you're decreasing around for a hat as you get to the top, and it makes a spiral? Well, I was making the spiral. But if you want a straight line, you have to offset them, consistantly moving one stitch to the left/right so that they don't curve!! Some of you more wise knitters may have known that, but I usually have to slog through the hard way to figure stuff out. At least I (probably) won't forget now. So that was good. I think I'll work on the Baby Suprise Jacket for a while now because both my friend and my SIL are having babies soon (my SIL is adopting) so I'll need stuff like that in the works. Then I can decide what to do with the mess/adult surprise cardigan I was working on before. I am slowly working my way up to a Hanne Falkenberg design.

We're going up to Duluth for wed. through Sun. so I'll be near one of my favorite yarn stores, Playing With Yarn in Knife River, MN. Last year for our 1st anniversary Dan and I went up to Duluth and he bought me a bunch of reeeeeeally thick yarn (2 sts/inch) for my first sweater, supposedly. Well, that never came to fruition, especially when I realized that I'd look like a (fat) bear in a big, black bulky sweater. So now I'm in the dilemma of whether I should try to return it (I don't think he'd be offended?!?) let alone if she takes 6 mo. old returns (they're still in the skeins with the bands around them). Otherwise it's felting time. As I was driving back yesterday I was trying to brainstorm all the things I could make and felt out of that wool and who I could give/pawn them off on. I could knit a huge black diaper bag and felt it. I could knit huge shapeless shoulder sling bags. I could make everyone I know felted woolen hats (although my hats always turn out too small). A giant blanket (not felted). Well, we'll see. Part of me just really wants to get rid of it all. Anyone up for some Cascade something or other yarn? (can't remember the name offhand).

I'm on vacation! and I'm debating whether to venture outside to do some thrifting in the 88degree weather (there's a heat index warning today- it got up to over 100 degrees apparently this weekend! hooray for AC). Maybe I'll entertain myself by surfing around the ring. Ta.